Transformers: Prejudice
by Mazamba
Summary: [U1] They though the battle was over. They were naive. My take on a fourth season of Transformers: Animated. Mainly Sari centric. Rating may change in later chapters. WARNING: Expect slow updates but long chapters.
1. Prologue Pt 1

**Prologue PT. 1**

It was a solemn trip.

Aboard Omega Supreme, Optimus Prime had been gearing up for their arrival on Cybertron for the last three solar cycles. Omega was running low on energon and had been forced to stop the transwarp a few light-years away from their intended destination.

The thrill that Sari Sumdac should have felt for finally visiting her home planet had been marred by the death of a good friend. Prowl was a loyal friend that had given his spark to protect the planet that she had called home for the first eight years of her life. He did not deserve to die on that day.

Everyone else was apparently busy, constantly working with their heads down as they tried to grasp the fact that their stick-in-the-mud of a cyber-ninja was no longer with them. Bulkhead was busy pretending to wipe off oil off his wrecking ball while ratchet ran a 72nd scan on Arcee's systems while she drummed on her servos on the berth. Bumblebee was compulsively pressing the buttons of a video game that flared GAME OVER on the screen as Jazz stared blankly at it. Sari, meanwhile, was busy watching Bulkhead polish his wrecking ball, Bumblebee mindlessly press buttons, Jazz staring numbly at a blinking screen, Ratchet run yet another unnecessary scan on Arcee while she drummed her servos on the berth, and Prime trying to look like nothing was wrong in the universe.

But something was wrong, and they knew it.

"Do you guys remember Sparkplug?" Sari suddenly said, "Y'know, the little robot pup dad made for me?"

Everyone's heads turned to look at her, trying to understand why she was suddenly talking about a robotic drone meant to mimic an organic canine.

"Did I ever tell you guys how I got him?" she continued, "I mean, it's weird isn't it? That dad would give a seven-year-old girl an expensive piece of machinery that wasn't even going to be mass-produced when it is easier and cheaper to buy a real dog."

She sighed as she hopped onto the table and off the empty energon cube that she'd been sitting on for the past hour.

"You see, the previous year I did get a real dog. Named him Fido. Real original, huh?" she said as she paced around the cube. "Anyways, I loved that little husky. We would always play around in the park or around the tower's parking lot. Then one day, around six months after I got him, he ran off towards the highway looking for a ball I had thrown too hard. There was an eighteen-wheeler coming around the corner and I guess the driver didn't see Fido or Fido didn't see the truck or-, well, he got hit. I cried for my dad and he ran down from a meeting with the board of directors just to see what was wrong. He saw Fido and he saw how I was trying to get to him. He grabbed me before I was hit by another distracted driver."

The technorganic girl took a deep breath before continuing. "Well, he didn't make it. We buried him and dad promised me that he would get me a new pet once I felt I was ready." She chuckled bitterly at the memory. "That didn't go as well as he had expected. I stomped off and told him that I would never want another pet because no one could ever replace Fido."

She paused for a second to look at the Autobots' thoughtful faces before she resumed the story. "I moped in my room for days, lamenting Fido's death before I finally decided to let dad comfort me.

"Six months later, I was sorta over Fido and was my old cheerful self again. Then my birthday came around and, well, you remember the disaster that my eight birthday party was, right? Well, this wasn't too different." Sari said with a sad smile before brightening up. "But then, dad came out with a present in a bright blue box with a red bow on top. Inside was Sparkplug, dad had been working on him for the past six months in an effort to cheer me up."

She looked at their mildly confused faces for a second before she finished up. "The point is that-,"

"Prowl will not be forgotten," finished Optimus Prime, "neither will his memory nor the sacrifice he made. Time will pass and eventually we'll meet new people, but he will always be in our sparks."

He turned to smile at the diminutive girl that was standing on the table. She smiled back, and they knew that everything would eventually be fine.

It was then that Bulkhead, who was apparently satisfied with the hygiene of his wrecking ball, decided to leave it out to dry next to him on the bench. It was also that moment that Jazz decided to give a small speech of his own.

"The lil' lady's right," he said, unknowingly knocking Bulkhead's ball off the sofa, "Prowler wouldn't have wanted us to sit here moping."

He took a small step towards the wrecking ball, an action that did not go unnoticed by Bumblebee, who grinned in anticipation.

"Wait for it," he whispered to Bulkhead.

"For what?" responded the green mech.

"The bot was a bit stiff," continued the cyber-ninja, "but he wouldn't have wanted us to-WHOA!"

Jazz had finally slipped on the wrecking ball, said ball then proceeded to hit Bulkhead in the face only to bounce off like a pinball to land on Bee's helm before he could get a chortle in.

Everybot else just stood there, stunned by Jazz's uncharacteristic clumsiness. Then their faces started to scrunch up as they tried, and failed to hold in their snickers. Eventually the snickers turned to all-out laughter as Bulkhead, Jazz, and Bumblebee all tried, and failed, to untangle themselves from the wrecking ball's cable.

A giggling Arcee had to support Ratchet to keep him from collapsing under the weight of his own laughter, Optimus was leaning on the Magnus Hammer, and Sari was holding her sides as she leant on the empty energon cube. Even Omega's chuckles could be heard throughout the cabin.

Some ten minutes later, their laughter died down, but by that time, a new life was obvious in each of their optics.

"Yeah, you're right Jazz," said Sari as she wiped tears from her optics, "Prowl was strict, but he wouldn't have wanted us to lie around moping all day."

Prime nodded in agreement as he turned to go back to the bridge.

"Hey, Boss-bot," yelled Bumblebee, "do you have to carry that hammer around all solar cycle?"

Optimus looked at the Magnus Hammer for a second, pondering the possibility of Bumblebee somehow managing to break it. Eventually he decided that it was probably strong enough to stand him and left it leaning head-down against the doorway. What he wasn't counting on was that a certain technorganic girl would be just as curious as he had suspected the yellow mech to be.

Sari leapt off the table and grabbed onto the hammer's handle to smoothly slide to the bottom like she would do with a fireman pole.

"Let's see how you work," she muttered under her breath as her hand started to glow.

"Oh no you don't," said a grumpy voice and Sari jumped back as the hammer's head floated up beyond her reach, wrapped in an envelope of pink, electromagnetic energy. "The last thing we need is for you to break the slagging thing," finished Ratchet as he magnetized the hammer and stuck it to the roof.

"Aw," pouted Sari, "c'mon, aren't you curious? How the heck does it control lightning? What is it, Thor's hammer?"

"This tool's inner workings are the business of Ultra Magnus and the Council of Trion alone," stated the grumpy old medic, "besides, you'd probably blow a hole in the hull and/or land yourself in my med bay."

Sari just pouted and returned to her seat on the cube after Ratchet gave her a short ride up. She sulked for a few minutes, watching Bumblebee play the game after he had apparently figured out how to restart it, before her eyes landed on her moped. She peeked to the side to make sure that Ratchet wasn't watching (he was testing Arcee's reflexes in the med bay) before she jumped off the cube and made her way over to her especially made two-wheeler. She pressed a button on the side and stood back as the moped folded itself onto a jetpack before flying onto her shoulders. She grabbed onto the controls and flew towards the Magnus Hammer.

"Now were where we?" whispered the inquisitive technorganic.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a stern voice somewhere below her, she looked down to see Optimus' face glaring upwards, "curiosity off-lined the sheepacron you know."

"What's a sheepacron?"

"A cybertronian animal with a horrible sense of direction and a short attention span," answered Bulkhead, "I tried to keep one as a pet once, but it got lost and fell in an energon tank."

"Oh. Well, it's not like this thing's gonna zap me for touching it," exclaimed Sari, putting her glowing hand on it from behind her back as if she was leaning on it, "See?"

Then, of course, the hammer started powering up. Sari turned to look back at the hammer, pupils fully contracted and looked back at Prime's shocked face.

"Me and my big mouth," she muttered dejectedly as she activated her armor right before a lightning bolt shot out of the hammer and launched her across the room.

"SARI!" everybot yelled, rushing over to check on her as she bounced off the wall and landed behind a console.

"Let me through!" yelled Ratchet, as he narrowly dodged a second bolt from the erratic hammer, "Prime! Shut that thing off!"

"I'm trying!" Prime yelled back, "What the frag is it doing on the ceiling!?"

Eventually, Optimus got tired of jumping for the hammer and activated his wingblade jetpack. He hadn't been able to take it off due to a number of broken cogs courtesy of Megatron.

Once he grabbed the Magnus Hammer, it calmed down and unstuck itself off the ceiling as it demagnetized.

"And I thought Ratchet was a grouch," muttered a small, female voice as a charred Sari emerged from behind a console, "at least _he_ never shot me with a lightning bolt."

"Don't move!" said the aforementioned grouch, as he picked her up and took her to the med bay, "who knows what that thing did to you."

"I'm fine," insisted Sari, "just need to wipe off the soot."

"You're fine if I say you're fine," stated Ratchet, "now sit down before I magnetize you to the berth."

Sari, who would have rather avoided Ratchet's wrath, grudgingly sat down and let Ratchet take her to the med bay to run a quick scan.

"What happened to that thing anyways?" asked Bumblebee.

"I don't know," admitted Optimus, "but from now on, no one touches it. Understood?"

"Yessir," yelled Sari from the med bay, "I don't feel like getting barbequed again anytime soon."

Prime sighed with his servo on his forehead, satisfied that the threat of electrocution would be enough to deter both the technorganic and her playmate from playing around with the ancient cybertronian artifact.

"Um, bossbot?" said Bulkhead, "is it supposed to do that?"

Optimus looked back at the Magnus Hammer to see it giving of a faint blue glow.

"Definitely not," he said.

He poked the head with a servo and yanked it back as a loud beeping sound emanated from it. Prime then held the oversized hammer at arm's length as the head opened to reveal an odd looking object inside. It looked like a sphere with a blue glowing crystal inside it and two handles coming out of the sides. The handles themselves had a chain looped around them to make it look like cybertronian –sized pendant.

"Well she's fine," Ratchet's voice startled the crew out of their shock, as he came back into the main cabin with Sari on his shoulder, "turns out her armor's resistant… to... electric…"

He trailed off as he took in the sight before he turned to glare at the femme on his shoulder.

"It wasn't me!"

"And who was it that was playing with the slagging thing when I specifically said not to?"

"Well-, um…"

"Ratchet, it really wasn't her," said Jazz, "I think. Anyways, the thing just fell apart when Prime touched it."

"And you said _I_ would break it!" Sari accused the old medic.

"It fell apart after _you_ played with it!" Ratchet reminded her.

"Well-! Uhhh… what's that thing in the middle?!"

"Don't change the subject!"

"Seriously though, what is it?" Asked Bumblebee as he stepped closer to get a better look.

"It can't be," muttered Jazz, "Yoketron once told me about a device forged by Primus himself. He specifically built it to choose the leaders of Cybertron back in the days of the Dynasty. It was first handed to Prima before it was passed down to the Dynasty. According to the legend, it will light our darkest hour."

"And that means?" inquired 'Bee.

"Beats me," answered Jazz, "I always figured it had something to do with Megatron or the Fallen. Anyways, this thing has been missing for millions of vorns. Who'd have thought it was in the hammer all along?"

"Wait," said a pensive-looking Bulkhead, "if it responded to Prime, doesn't that means that it chose him? Is Optimus going to be the next Magnus?"

"Not exactly," answered Ratchet, "I once met this old bot back when I was only a couple thousand vorns old, called himself Vector Prime. Now, according to him-,"

"Sorry to interrupt," stated Omega's voice, "but we will land soon, I suggest you strap yourselves down."

"Right," confirmed Optimus, "Ratchet, you can finish your story later. Bumblebee, you'll have to carry Sari inside your alt-mode. Everybot else get ready to land."

"Wait, Prime!" yelled Jazz, "take the Matrix and hang it around your neck!"

"Why?"

"Just do it and keep an optic on Perceptor."

"Okay," said Optimus with hesitation clear in his voice as he hung the Matrix around his neck.

Everyone sat to strap themselves down, while Bumblebee let Sari and Ratchet tie him down to the floor with large straps before opening his door to let her in.

"Sari," said Ratchet, catching her attention through Bumblebee's com, "do yourself a favor and stay in robot mode while we're on Cybertron."

"Why?"

"Remember that captain Fanzone took an impromptu trip off planet?" she nodded, "Well he nearly got stepped on by an organophobic Autobot."

"Lemme guess, Grandus?" proposed Bulkhead.

"How'd you know?"

"From what you told me, Fanzone landed himself near his favorite pub," answered the green mech, "besides, Grandus is notorious for his fear of organics."

"Well, it's only gotten worse with Sentinel as Magnus," continued Ratchet, "with that ridiculous, fear-mongering propaganda he set up."

"He set up propaganda against organics?" asked Optimus, almost incredulous. Almost.

"No, the Decepticons," corrected the medic, "well, the organics too. The point is, Sari, that it would be best that you keep your organic half a secret. Sentinel's not the only bot I'm worried about."

"Ratchet, please strap yourself down," echoed Omega Supreme's voice, "Cybertron is within view, we land in three cycles."

"Gotcha," confirmed Ratchet as he sat down.

"How long is a cycle anyways?" inquired Sari from inside Bumblebee as she buckled her seatbelt.

"About an earth minute," answered Bumblebee, "give or take a nanoklik."

"And a nanoklik is?"

"About a second."

"Hmm, so what's a megacycle?"

"WOULD YOU TWO MUTE IT!?" Yelled Ratchet, "We'll get there in a couple cycles so be quiet until then!"

"I'm just trying to figure out how long an Earth year is to a Cybertronian year," justified the technorganic.

"We don't have stellar or orbital cycles like you do," stated Ratchet, obviously exasperated, "we only use those when we're on planets that actually orbit a star."

"Cybertron doesn't have a sun?"

"Nope," responded the veteran, "it has two moons that we use to tell time by lunar days called orns. An orn is around 13 earth days."

"So how long will it take us to go back?"

"We'll head back on the next vorn."

"Which is?" asked Sari with obvious irritation in her voice.

"About 83 Earth years."

"WHAT!?" exclaimed the girl, "I can't stay that long! By the time I make it back, dad will be dead and buried! I want to see him again!"

"How long do humans live anyways?" asked Bumblebee.

"Supposedly its 125 years, but few make it past 100 and dad is pushing 60," answered Sari before she turned to Prime with tearful eyes, "please, we have to make it back sooner."

"I'll talk it over with Wheeljack," he promised, "I'll see what I can do."

Sari nodded, not quite happy but satisfied with Prime's promise. Meanwhile, Bumblebee had fallen unusually quiet as he pondered his playmate's lifespan. Would she live as long as a Transformer or age like a human would? He didn't know, and he suspected that Ratchet didn't either.

The cabin shook as Omega entered Cybertron's Earth-like, but much dryer atmosphere. Sari excitedly looked out the window as Bumblebee pondered his thoughts.

* * *

><p>As Omega approached the dock, those inside couldn't help but be amazed at the crowd that had gathered for them. Mechs, femmes, and younglings alike had gathered around the dock once news of the downfall of the notorious Decepticon leader had spread.<p>

Once they landed, Optimus went down to the brig with Jazz to get the prisoners. Megatron, Lugnut, and Shockwave glared at him from their cells.

"Optimus Prime," sneered Megatron, "to what do we owe this pleasure?"

"We've landed," stated Jazz as he deactivated the energy cell, "time to face the music."

Megatron chose to ignore his comment and turned back to the mech that had become the bane of his existence practically overnight.

"You are aware that it's only a matter of time?" he stated, "Those prisons of yours won't hold us forever."

"Perhaps," stated Prime as he maneuvered Megatron onto a platform, before bringing his face up to the Decepticons' leader, "but if they can't, we will."

The Decepticon leader could only growl and watch as his two most loyal warriors were placed on their own cargo platforms.

"Jazz, get Bulkhead and Bumblebee to help you with the prisoners," stated Prime, "tell Ratchet and Arcee to get the protoforms. I'll retrieve Prowl's shell."

Jazz merely nodded at the final, mournful sentence and did as he was told. Optimus merely turned to head down to the secondary cargo hold where a large, metallic casket laid. The Prime momentarily closed his optics in silent mourning and vented sharply, before loading the casket onto a cargo platform.

"We all miss you Prowl," he muttered, "you shouldn't have gone the way you did."

When he finally reached the top, he noticed that the Decepticons were already on the airlock and that Ratchet was floating up three protoforms as Arcee guided him.

"What about the other protoforms?" asked Jazz.

"This is all of them," stated Arcee sadly.

"Between Starscream's experiments and Lockdown selling off the others, we're lucky to have gotten this many back," muttered Ratchet.

"But there were hundreds of them!" yelled Jazz angrily, "You're telling me that this is all that we got back?"

"Afraid so," said the medic, "but at least we got the Allspark back."

"Most of the Allspark," corrected the cyber-ninja, unaware that Megatron had raised an optic ridge in interest, "about a sixth of the fragments are still on Earth."

"We'll have to go back for them later," cut in Optimus, "right now, our top priority is securing the prisoners."

"Well, at least it will be easier with these bozos out of the way," said Sari from her perch on a shelf, startling Shockwave.

"I was not aware that you had such a diminutive member on your ranks," he stated, "I was not even aware that any cybertronian short of a turbo-rat was that small."

"I'm a newer, more compact model," stated Sari, "smaller, easier for me to infiltrate ships."

"As small as a human," stated Shockwave, somehow managing to narrow his single optic.

Sari just gulped and flew up to Prime's shoulder.

"Reindeer bot here's perceptive," she whispered into his audio receptor.

"He's one of the Decepticon's most notorious minds," he reminded her, "short of Oil Slick or Scalpel anyways."

Shockwave was visibly offended. "I'll have you know that I AM the best scientist on the Decepticon ranks!"

"Oh please!" snorted Ratchet, "The only one beneath you was Starscream and you know it! And now that HE'S offline, well, I guess you're on the bottom!"

"Scientist, schmientist," said Bumblebee, "I just wanna find Blurr and hit the racetrack."

"Agent Blurr?" sneered Shockwave, "Good luck finding him."

"Why's that?"

"Why don't you ask Cliffjumper?" proposed the Decepticon, "Ask him about a light blue garbage cube I asked him to dispose of."

"Light blue…" trailed off the yellow speedster before his optics grew in realization, "YOU MONSTER!"

He lunged at Shockwave, stingers out and sparking, only to have Bulkhead hold him back.

"Let me at him!"

"Bumblebee, stop!" Ordered Optimus, "Let the courts settle this!"

"Courts," snorted Megatron, "do you honestly think that we can expect a fair trial from the Autobots?"

"Yes," stated Sari coldly, suddenly on his shoulder, "though that is more than what you deserve."

Megatron just smirked, apparently interested in the tiny femme.

"Well said," he agreed, "but who are you, or they for that matter, to decide what we deserve?"

"A member of the city that you ravaged," she stated with an icy voice and narrowed optics before she flew off to land on Optimus' shoulder.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked her.

"Prime, I gotta be honest with you," she sighed sadly after a moment of hesitation, "when we get back to Earth, we'll have a body count on our hands."

"What!?"

"Detroit is home to millions of people," she reminded him, "not all of whom wanted to leave, despite the danger. There is no way in hell that we got everyone out."

"So that's why-,"

"I am supremely pissed off." She finished as she flew off once more to comfort Bumblebee.

As Optimus pondered the girl's words, he failed to notice the pink and white femme that stood behind him.

"Optimus Prime, sir," said Arcee, snapping the Prime out of his thoughts, "with all due respect, I would like to remain inside Omega."

"Why?"asked the Prime, slightly startled by the formality.

"I am not comfortable with joining the celebration," she explained, "not with the part I played in Megatron's plan."

"The part you were _forced_ to play you mean," cut in Ratchet with his correction, "none of this was your fault, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"Maybe so," she admitted, "but I would still like to stay here until the celebrations are over."

"We will leave you to your thoughts if you wish it," stated Optimus, "but nobot, in here or out there, blames you for what happened."

"Thank you."

Prime just nodded and turned to the rest of his crew as Ratchet comforted Arcee.

"Alright, everybot," he said, "it's time, the prisoner platforms can move on their own but we'll need to load them onto the conveyor belt. Same with the protoforms and Prowl's… casket."

"We'd rather carry Prowler's casket," stated Jazz with Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Ratchet behind him, "no reason to let him drag on the floor."

Optimus nodded his approval as his crew led the Decepticon's onto the airlock's conveyor belt alongside the protoforms. He stood at the front as the doors opened with a hissing sound to reveal the celebration.

* * *

><p>Characters have been donated by TheGirlWithTheFuzzyPinkSocks . They will be applied later.<p> 


	2. Prologue Pt 2

**Prologue Pt. 2**

Once they had finally managed to escape the party, Optimus and his team (Arcee included) quickly found themselves walking, or riding in Sari's case, towards the Autobot High Council chamber in the Metroplex. As they strolled in, Sari's optics grew wide under her visor as she took in the sheer size of the room. Seated in the center was a one-armed Ultra Magnus on a wheelchair as he patiently waited for the new arrivals, on his left was a large mech with white plates on his face that resembled a beard-mustache combo , on the seat to his left sat a red mech with horns that rather resembled Bumblebee when he scowled. On the seats beneath them sat an oddly green femme to the right, and a mech with a bulb-like head with optic enhancers on the left. Sari noticed from her perch on Bumblebee's shoulder that Optimus was staring at this last one, whose optics grew wide as he noticed the large pendant on Optimus' chest.

The team also noticed, much to their distaste, that Sentinel had also made it in. Sari mentally noted that his chin was noticeable from nearly thirty meters.

"Optimus Prime," stated Ultra Magnus, "it is good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too sir," He responded with a salute, "I'm glad to see you are up and about."

"Well, close enough," responded the Magnus patting his wheelchair, "either way, you and your team are here to debrief the Autobot High Council of your activities on earth since our last departure."

Optimus nodded and began their tale, everything from Waspinator to Soundwave's attack and everything in between had been included, though he conveniently left out Sari's role for the time being.

"This Blackarachnia character intrigues me," stated an oddly mechanical voice from the left, "her origins are largely unknown, yet she appears to be one of the Decepticon's brightest minds. Enough so that they tolerate her technorganic nature. I am curious as to her origins and design."

"Should it worry me that that's the only cybertronian I've met that actually seem robotic?" whispered Sari to Bumblebee.

"That's Perceptor," cut in Jazz, "he removed his emotion pathways to accelerate his processing speed."

"That's horrible!"

"It was necessary," stated Perceptor, who had been listening in, "in order to perfect the designs of the numerous weapons that assisted in our victory over the Decepticons, a mind uninhibited by emotions was necessary and indispensable."

"But don't you, I don't know, miss your emotions?" asked Sari.

"Nostalgia is an emotion," stated Perceptor, "I cannot miss them."

"Optimus," called out the green femme, "I couldn't help but notice that you left out a part of your report."

"Which is what exactly Botanica?" responded the Prime, fearing that he knew the answer.

"Where did that small femme come from?" clarified the femme, apparently Botanica, pointing at Sari on Bumblebee's shoulder, "What is your name little one?"

"Uhhh…" She was stumped; they had forgotten to mention an Autobot name for her until they got off-planet.

"That is something that I would like to share privately with Ultra Magnus first," stated the Prime, "it is a rather sensitive matter, I hope you will excuse me."

"I am more concerned over her lack of an energy signature," stated Perceptor, "while it is perfectly acceptable that a Minicon protoform escaped the Decepticon extermination, her lack of an energy signature does not."

"Minicon?" inquired Sari.

"One of the smallest cybertronian classes," stated the emotionless mech, "the only cybertronians with a lower size were Insecticons."

"Oh."

"Optimus," stated Ultra Magnus, "please accompany me to the back, you too Sentinel, and bring the femme with you."

Both Primes stood and walked towards Ultra Magnus' office, pausing only to let Sari onto Optimus' shoulder. Once inside, Ultra Magnus turned to them and signaled Optimus to put Sari on the table. He complied, and left her to look around the oversized desk.

"Why exactly are her origins a 'sensitive matter' as you put it?" he asked, straight to the point.

"She's not what you would call an ordinary cybertronian," he explained, "There is much about her that we don't know."

"Well, she's not bad," leered Sentinel, "for her size."

"If only you knew," muttered Sari as she examined what appeared to be a giant paperclip, before folding it into a rough chair.

"She's versatile," admitted the Magnus.

"What are these things?" asked Sentinel looking at the paperclip.

"The organics on earth liked to keep them on their desks," he said, "I thought they made a good decoration and had a few made."

"Um, Ultra?" said Sari from her chair, "not to be rude, but they're not for decoration. They keep papers together to archive them."

"What's paper?" asked Sentinel.

"A white sheet made out of the pulp of dead trees." She explained.

"And trees are?"

"The green things that you kept crashing into on earth."

"How do you know about that?" asked Ultra Magnus.

"Well, I, uh," once again, Sari was at a loss for words.

"She was sparked on Earth," said Optimus, "but her imprinting is a bit more interesting."

Sari looked at him with a quizzical expression. He nodded and she grinned, not that they could tell with her mouth guard up. She looked at Sentinel and used her jetpack to fly up to his shoulder, much to Optimus' surprise.

"Well, let's just say that Sentinel here," she said bringing her mouth guard close to the aforementioned Prime's faceplate, "is not going to take it well," she quickly deactivated her helmet and landed her tongue on his cheek before flying off to the desk, leaving Sentinel Prime in a state of shock with his mouth open in a horrified expression.

"A technorganic?" asked Ultra Magnus with surprise evident in his voice, "Interesting, though you look familiar."

"It's Sari," explained Optimus, barely stifling his laughter at Sentinel's plight, "the girl that helped me and my team adapt to life on Earth."

"Ah, yes," stated the Magnus, seemingly ignorant of Sentinel's shivering as he slowly snapped out of it, "I was not aware that she was cybertronian."

"Neither was I," admitted Sari, "until I skinned my elbow in an incident with a space-bridge. Well, more like had the skin torn off."

"That does not explain your current size," stated Ultra Magnus, "I remember you were shorter."

"I had an Allspark-related growth spurt," she explained as Sentinel began to utter an odd whine.

"I see," muttered the Magnus, "but, what about that thing you did to Sentinel? Is that a greeting on Earth?"

"Nah," said Sari with a wave of her hand, "that was-,"

"GYAAAHHH!" screamed Sentinel, making Ultra Magnus, and everybot outside his office as well as the council chamber, jump.

"-to do that," finished the mischievous technorganic with a grin.

"Organic slime!" he screamed as he took out a bottle of disinfectant out of the storage space on his back, "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!"

He splashed the disinfectant on his face and ran around screaming like a little girl with a spider on her hair.

"Any second now," said Sari ominously, "the acid will start corroding your armor and eating into your circuits."

"You're lying!" screamed Sentinel, "You said you couldn't do that!"

"Did you really think that I would tell you guys of my only defense?" she said with an evil smirk, "I wanted a few cards under the table."

Sentinel ran out of the office screaming for Perceptor to wipe the "disgusting organic acid" off him. Once he left, Sari was free to roll over on her back laughing.

"Was that really necessary?" asked Optimus.

"No," she admitted between giggles, "but it was hilarious!"

"That won't actually hurt him, will it?" asked Ultra Magnus with a slight tone of concern in his voice.

"Nah," said Sari as she wiped tears from her eyes, "it's mainly water and a few digestive enzymes. Rain is more likely to hurt him than my saliva."

Ultra, apparently satisfied that his big-chinned subordinate was safe, turned back to the yellow femme on his desk.

"Though I'll admit that was amusing," he said with a slight chuckle, "I'd rather you didn't give anyone else a spark-failure while you are on Cybertron."

"No prob," she answered, "I just wanted to give _him_ a spark failure."

"Back to the issue at hand," cut in Optimus, "I'd rather keep her organic nature a secret for the time being."

"I agree," stated Ultra Magnus, "all things considered, it is probably best for her safety. However, I must insist that the council is made aware of this so that the proper protection can be provided to her."

"If you think it is necessary," said Optimus, he wasn't entirely happy with this arrangement but he could cope, he only hoped that Sari would too.

"Good," stated the reigning Magnus, "now if that is all, I suggest that we return to the council chamber. There is one more matter that I wish to discuss."

The two mech stood up and waited for Sari to catch up with her jetpack. As they left the room, they passed several bewildered Autobots covered in disinfectant. Optimus almost slipped on a puddle of the stuff as he walked into the council chamber behind Ultra Magnus. Inside, they were greeted by the sight of a quivering Sentinel Prime that was having his cheek scanned by Perceptor, who insisted that the liquid was harmless.

"Now then," stated the one-armed Magnus, "the Hammer, if you please."

Optimus handed the staff-like Magnus Hammer back to its rightful owner. Ultra took it with his single right arm and paused to examine it.

"It feels… odd, somehow," he muttered, "Was it damaged in the battle?"

"Not that I know," said Optimus, "though the head fell apart during the journey back."

"It fell apart?" said the tall mech with the beard and mustache combo said incredulously, before noticing the pendant around Optimus' neck, "How did you come across the Matrix of Leadership?"

"It was inside the Magnus Hammer," answered Optimus, slightly taken aback.

"Inside the Hammer you say?" he then turned to Perceptor, "What is the meaning of this? You were the one that designed the Magnus Hammer, weren't you Perceptor?"

"That is correct Alpha Trion," responded the mech in his emotionless voice, "I deemed it necessary."

"In what way was it necessary to conceal and weaponize one of the most important artifacts in all of Cybertron?"

"As you are aware, I was once under the servitude of the Dynasty of the Primes," he stated, "it was then that I first witnessed the creation of the Matrix of Leadership and the subsequent destruction of Unicron. When Megatronus Prime turned on his brothers, they deemed it necessary to hide the Matrix deep within the core of Cybertron. Eons later, Prima gave the artifact to me for safe-keeping until the Fallen Prime could be vanquished."

"So you decided to turn it into a weapon," stated Jazz with an accusatory tone.

"Not at first," answered Perceptor, "before I undertook the operation that removed my emotional pathways, I was unwilling to harness its power. It was not until the war that I decided to remove my emotion pathways and harness the power of the Matrix by forging it into a weapon."

"So Megatron was a Prime?" cut in Sari with wide optics.

"No," answered Ultra Magnus, "Megatron and Megatronus are two different mech. Megatron came many Vorns after Megatronus Prime was exiled off Cybertron by the remaining twelve of the Original Thirteen Primes."

"Megatron was once known as Dio," cut in Optimus, "he was a gladiator inspired by the Fallen and later took his name when he started the war on Cybertron. According to legend, somewhere along the line he actually met Megatronus and became his disciple."

"So Megatron's actually the second banana?" asked Bumblebee, "we don't have to take on the final boss too do we?"

"Megatronus hasn't been seen since the beginning of the Great War," said Ratchet, "chances are that he is offline like his brothers."

"We're getting sidetracked here," cut in Jazz, "Perceptor, why exactly did you think it was necessary to turn the Matrix into a weapon?"

"When the war first started, calls were made to find the next Prime," answered the spectacled mech, "when the Matrix did not react to any of the candidates, the soldiers began to lose hope and several defected to the Decepticons. In order for us to avoid defeat, I deemed that the Matrix should be used while concealed within the Magnus Hammer. We then converted the Council of the Primes into the Autobot High Council, and the term Prime was redefined from the leader of the Autobots to the leader of a troop of Autobots underneath the reigning Magnus."

"Under the old definition, there are no true Primes left," said Ratchet with his usual scowl, "except maybe, Optimus."

"If Optimus is indeed a true Prime," said Alpha Trion, "then it may be time to return to the ways of old."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," said Optimus, "a government shift this soon after Megatron's defeat will cause more confusion than the war itself."

"Wisely put," praised Ultra Magnus.

"Apart from the fact that the whole planet would go to the scrapheap if he became Magnus," mocked Sentinel, apparently over his near-death experience.

"Like it did when _you_ were Magnus?" pointed out a mech behind Perceptor with large, blue panels on the sides of his head. The aforementioned panels also blinked as he spoke, making for such a colorful display that Sari couldn't believe she hadn't noticed him.

"I was a great Magnus thank you very much!"

"I have to agree with Wheeljack," cut in Ultra Magnus before the situation got out of hand, "I was debriefed shortly after my awakening of what had concurred in your short term as Magnus. You ignored the council, set up a ridiculous fear-mongering propaganda campaign against nonexistent Decepticons, and attempted to destroy Omega Supreme with the Metroplex's weapon systems."

"They were all necessary measures!" yelled back Sentinel, "If you could find 'cons in a backwater dirt ball like Earth, then chances are that they were running around on Cybertron!"

"Earth is not a backwater dirt ball!" yelled Sari, "Just because you don't like organics, doesn't mean that the rest of Cybertron feels the same!"

"Save it slimy, I should have stepped on you when I had the chance!"

"Enough!"

Every Autobot and half-bot in the room turned to the crippled Magnus, Sentinel and Sari glaring at each other for a second longer before turning as well.

"Are there any Decepticons left on Earth?" asked Ultra Magnus.

"No sir," he answered, "only the Constructicons."

"And they're not really bad," cut in Bulkhead, "they just hung out with the wrong crowd for a while. Scrapper's fun and Mixmaster's a bit of a hothead, Dirt Boss is the only one I'd worry about."

"Why didn't you bring them?" asked Alpha Trion, "Is there a particular reason that you saw it fit to leave three Decepticons in the same planet as those humans?"

"We didn't think they'd be a real threat," said Optimus, "with the exception of Dirt Boss, who's been missing from some time."

"Why is Dirt Boss a threat?" asked Ultra Magnus.

"He's puny," said Bulkhead, "but agile, and those cerebro shells of his are a nightmare."

"Cerebro shells?"

"He shoots them out of his forehead," explained the green mech, flailing his large arms around, "they attach themselves to your helm and basically turn you into a drone."

"Hmm, we'll have to retrieve him later," said Alpha Trion, "that kind of weapon could be devastating in the hands of the Decepticons."

"What about the other, uh, Constructicons?" asked Botanica.

"Well, Mixmaster can stir up acid out of a tank in his midsection," said Bulkhead, "but he can also mix cement or other chemicals, Scrapper has a drill but that's about it. Oh, and they're both really good builders."

"But they'll work for just about anyone," cut in Optimus, "for anyone that can offer them oil anyways."

"But they're harmless," insisted Bulkhead, "Scrapper even helped Sari take down Soundwave back when he wiped our processors."

"I am worried about this Soundwave character," cut in Cliffjumper, "are you certain that he is offline?"

"Positive," said Optimus, "I cut him and that bat of his in half and Sari finished him off. All that's left is the other guitar."

"I see," said Cliffjumper, "how soon can you retrieve it?"

"You can leave him to me," stated Sari, "without Soundwave around to mess with my jetpack, he'll be easy pickings."

"That reminds me," said Ultra Magnus, "there is one last matter that we need to address before we can call this session to a close. Miss Sumdac, if you please."

She nodded and shut her optics to let the white organic cover slip back onto them like an iris. At the same time her armor gave off a blue flash as it receded back into her body. She heard gasps from the surrounding bots and slowly opened her eyes to see their shocked faces.

"How is this possible?" asked Botanica with wide optics.

"Technorganics?" asked Ratchet, "there were two others, Blackarachnia and Waspinator."

"I don't know Waspinator," said Alpha Trion, "but Blackarachnia's transformation sequence is very different from hers."

"Maybe it's because humans have a similar body shape," proposed Wheeljack.

"I propose a series of tests," stated Perceptor, "so that we may be certain about her origins and her internal functions."

"It is not my decision to make," said Optimus, "Sari, what do you say?"

The technorganic hesitated for a moment before nodding, "I need to know," she explained, "not only about my systems, but also about my origins. This will help."

"Please accompany us to my laboratory," said Perceptor leading her away.

"Wait!"

Perceptor turned to face Arcee, his cold stare asking her to continue.

"Before you go," the pink femme angrily demanded, "I need to know. Why was I left in that hospital for so long?"

"Resources where scarce," explained Perceptor, "my attention was needed elsewhere."

"So you left me there to rust!?"

"You were properly cared for," replied the emotionless mech, "rust would not have been an issue. After the war was over, your recovery became a minor priority."

"You mean to tell me," growled Arcee, shaking with barely contained anger, "that after the millions of Orns that is worked for you, after being hunted down like an animal, and even after making me force a freshly sparked protoform to go into war, you had better things to do!?"

"My attention was needed elsewhere," repeated Perceptor, "repairs where necessary throughout Cybertron, hundreds of Autobots were dead, many more where missing, and the stock of Auto-troopers had been severely depleted."

"And I guess the repair of a loyal Autobot intelligence agent came second," accused Ratchet, "if you weren't standing in front of me right now, I would say you lost more than your emotions over the war Perceptor."

"I did not lose them," clarified the mech, "I removed them," he turned to Sari and Wheeljack, "come, there is much work to do."

"Can Ratchet come?" asked Sari with a hint of nervousness in her voice, "he's treated me before."

"Ratchet is needed elsewhere," he said, "we need to perform some tests on agent Arcee to ensure that her processor did not suffer any critical damage."

"Oh, alright," she said with a slightly dejected voice, "See ya later guys."

"We'll go to Maccadam's Old Oil House for a drink later," proposed Ratchet, "I'm buying the first round."

"We'll take you up on that," jested Jazz.

"If that is all, then this meeting is over," said Ultra Magnus, "dismissed."

"Well, we might as well go with Sari then," said Bumblebee as he turned to follow.

"I would not advise that," stated Perceptor, "your reputation precedes you."

"My strength? My speed?"

"Your inability to follow a simple command, often resulting in an otherwise avoidable accident," stated the red mech, "and Wheeljack has several prototypes in the laboratory."

"So?"

"There is an 80% chance of any one of them exploding within the next ten megacycles," he explained, unaware of Sari's growing optics behind him, "and that is under normal circumstances. I would prefer not to have to rebuild my laboratory, again."

"In that case I'll stick with Prime," said Bumblebee, "who has a relatively low chance of exploding today."

"Not if he doesn't get a doctor to look at him," said Ratchet, "the same goes for the lot of you."

"Sentinel Prime," said Ultra Magnus, "escort them to the medical facility."

"Yes Sir," saluted the blue Prime, "come on Golden Boy."

"Yes, Captain Chin, sir!" mock saluted Sari.

"Mute it!" yelled Sentinel on his way out.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Sari found herself sitting naked with her hair loose underneath a large, red microscope with wheels.<p>

"Now, transform as slowly as you can," said Perceptor, "but keep your optics open."

She complied and withdrew the white covering on her eyes while looking straight up at the lens. She tried to slow herself down, but still transformed faster than a human could blink.

"Fascinating," Perceptor said, "your armor is kept folded up underneath your organic components. It is thinner than most, but unusually strong and resistant to heat. "

"Really?" asked Sari as she hopped off the microscope and headed towards her clothes, absentmindedly rubbing the small bandage where Perceptor had taken a blood and tissue sample, "I'd always figured that my head just turned metallic."

"Negative," said Perceptor as he turned back into his robot mode, his scope on his shoulder then projected a hologram of Sari, the hologram then started to slowly transform, grotesquely showing how her head came apart to expose her helmet. She stared as the white covering on her eyes withdrew; giving her an alien look with two glowing-blue, almond-shaped optics on her human face. Her hologram's face was left in one piece, but the rest of her head slowly pulled itself apart to make room for her helmet to come out in slivers smaller than her fingernails.

"As you can see," he continued, "your body gives off a small burst of radiation before drawing your armor onto your body in slivers at a speed I did not consider possible for transformations."

He then zoomed in to view a cross section of one of the slivers.

"The armor itself appears to be made a cybertanium on top of sheets made of carbon molecules arranged into hexagons."

"Graphine," said Sari, "that's what we call it on Earth. The army uses it to make body armor since you need to press the weight of an elephant onto a pencil to poke a hole through a piece of graphine as thick as paper. We also use it for computer chips."

"Ingenious." Admitted Perceptor before he focused back onto her schematics, outlining five tanks underneath her stomach and one behind the place where her lungs should have been, "You also have many more fuel tanks that what I expected. There are the regular ones for energon, oil, and coolant," three tanks lit up blue respectively, "one filled with liquid oxygen," the one between her turbine cyclers lit up blue as well, "but I was unable to identify the substance that are held in this last one," and the last tank lit up red.

"Let me see," said Sari as Perceptor pulled up the molecular diagrams, "it's one is a mixture of glucose, water, amino acids, and lipid acids," she explained, "they're basically what organics run on. When we eat other organics, we break them down into these compounds. The oxygen serves to oxidize the glucose while the amino acids and the lipid acids are for repair," she frowned as she looked at the oxygen tank, "guess that's why I don't breathe when I'm in robot mode."

That's when she remembered a question she'd been saving, "What about these?" she asked, fingering the two metallic protuberances on her head before transforming back to her human mode.

"Sensory receptors and communication antennae."

The hologram then focused on the rest of her body, properly censored at Sari's request.

"I had initially assumed that this object was a decoration," stated Perceptor, pointing at the blue jewel on her naked chest, "but after watching you remove your 'clothes', it is obvious that it is in fact an access port to your spark chamber."

"I could have told you that much," said Sari as she slipped on her gray one-piece. She then pressed the blue jewel on her chest lightly to make it pop out; she put on her shoulder guards and slipped the two pieces on top of the dress. The jewel fit snugly into the hole between her shoulder guards before the two pieces shut around the small shaft that had resulted. The jewel then sank partway in to power her flexible armor, activating the electronic paint and turning it back to its familiar yellow color as the power surged through the cloth-like metal. She then proceeded to put her knee-socks and combat boots back on before adjusting the fingerless gloves on her sleeves.

"How did you make that armor?" asked Wheeljack from his spot in front of a large, tubular object.

"I took some cybertanium scrap metal Ratchet had lying around," she said as she tied her hair back up, "then I used some destronium from my dad's lab, melted them together into crystals, and then used them to seed a supersaturated solution of the same substance in mineral oil to make nanowires. We use the same technique on Earth to make copper nanowires for computers."

She put her hairpins back on before she continued. "Then I just had robots spin and weave them into cloth to make my clothes. I even made different styles, in case I wanted to shake things up from time to time."

"Anything beneficial about them?"

"Well, they should be bullet-proof," said Sari, "but I haven't really tested them. I'm also experimenting with the structure to see if I can get it to harden into plaques." She then turned back to Perceptor and asked. "What about my organs?"

"Your organic subsystems appear to be isolated in solarium casings," he stated as the hologram's torso opened to reveal a relatively small stomach and shortened intestines encased in metal. Sari reached into her luggage and pulled out her laptop, unrolling it as she pulled it out.

"This is what we use graphine for," she said when she noticed Perceptor and Wheeljack staring at the paper-like computer, "I downloaded a whole mess of medical stuff in here to compare." She said as she moved her thin fingers on the screen bringing up medical drawings. "My stomach's smaller than most and my intestines are nearly two feet shorter."

"Well, you're mostly cybertronian," pointed out Wheeljack, "you probably don't need as much organic fuel as you do energon."

"Yeah, that makes sense," she muttered, "but where the heck are my lungs?"

"Your cyclers appear to be lined in organic blood-sacks designed to absorb oxygen," stated the red mech, "when you exhale to remove energon emissions, you completely empty out your cyclers. Inhalation then brings oxygen into your system, storing the excess into the tank. In your robot-mode, you heat up the liquid oxygen into a gas and flow it back into the cyclers."

"How do her nano-components handle the energon radiation?"asked Wheeljack, "Last I checked, organics and energon don't mix well."

"She appears to be technorganic at the cellular level," stated Perceptor, "her cells are partially made of cybertanium, which protects them from the energon radiation."

"So I'm made of nanobots?"

"In many ways, cells are already like nanobots."

"Well yeah, now that I think about it," then she turned her attention towards the large tube that Wheeljack was working on. "What exactly is that by the way?"

"Nice, huh? I call it the Barrage Cannon," said Wheeljack proudly while his faceplates blinked, "It's an energon ionizing rifle that works by conducting energon crystals trough these two rails in the middle with an electromagnetic accelerator. Check it out."

He snapped a panel back into place before he hosted the cannon onto his shoulder like a bazooka. They both walked into the shooting range that was attached to the lab and ignored Perceptor as he stood up and rapidly walked towards his desk. He made it in to duck underneath it just as Sari yelled out "Fire!" and the door swooshed open to reveal Ratchet and Arcee.

"What are you two malfunctions up to?" asked Ratchet as he walked in, then he noticed the weapon on Wheeljack's arms, "DUCK!"

He pushed Arcee underneath the nearest lab table and ducked in himself just as the energon crystal shot out of the cannon at high velocity, impacted against the target at the end of the shooting range, and… plopped to the floor with a sound that rather resembled a goldfish's fart.

"Scrap," muttered Wheeljack, "it didn't even blow!"

"Let's consider that a good thing," said Sari from his shoulder as she jumped down to inspect the crystal.

"What was THAT all about?" asked Arcee as she and Ratchet crawled out from beneath the table.

"Hatchet, you're just in time!" called out Wheeljack as he put down the cannon, "I was just testing out my new invention."

"Hatchet?" Inquired Arcee.

"That's what Percy and I called this grumpy old medibot back in the academy," he answered, "Glitch off Ratchet and down comes the Hatch- YOW!"

"Just so you know, my aim is as sharp as ever!" said the grumpy old medibot.

"I can see that," moaned Wheeljack as he rubbed his helm on the dent that Ratchet's wrench had hit, "scratch that, I can _feel_ that. Where did you even pull that thing out of?"

"I think I know what went wrong!" yelled Sari from…somewhere. As the Autobots turned in confusion, she yelled out, "Over here!"

Wheeljack turned towards the cannon on the table and noticed an opened panel. When he peeked inside, he found Sari tinkering with a few wires.

"I recalibrated the ionization chamber," she explained as she connected a couple of sparking wires, "now it will keep the inside of the energon crystal liquid to make it blow up."

"Won't that make it unstable?" pointed out Ratchet as the yellow femme crawled out.

"Duh, that's the only way it'll blow."

"Ratchet, Arcee, please come with me," said Perceptor.

"What about them?" asked Arcee, looking towards Wheeljack and Sari as they strolled back into the shooting range.

"We will be able to see the results of Sari Sumdac's adjustments from the viewing platform."

"I don't know," said Ratchet as they took the lift to the viewing station, "I think Sari forgot about what you said about Wheeljack's inventions."

"I presumed as much."

"Ready guys?" called out Wheeljack from the comlink on the wall.

"Get ready for the fireworks!" continued Sari.

"Primus, there's two of them," moaned Ratchet as they walked into the viewing room, a square room with a small window on the wall that overlooked the shooting range.

"What's so bad about that?" asked Arcee.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

In the instant after Wheeljack pulled the trigger, a muffled explosion shook the building, the small window filled with gray smoke, and a small humanoid dent appeared on the metal wall beneath the window.

"That," stated Perceptor as he headed back to the elevator.

"Is that Sari?" asked Arcee, pointing at the dent as Ratchet ran out.

"Frag it Wheeljack! If she's hurt I'll weld your articulators shut!" she heard Ratchet yell out from the shooting range, followed by the sound of metal hitting metal as a wrench found Wheeljack's helm.

"How'd he get down there so fast?"

* * *

><p>Word of warning, from this point don't expect speedy uploads. The rest of the story is mostly written in clips at this point and i'm still filling it in.<p>

Quick notes on the scientific accuracy of the previous gadgets that were mentioned. Most are theoretically possible.

Graphene is real and it is as strong as I stated according to Discovery News. Thanks to some very special properties it may also pave the way to scroll laptops like Sari's. Word is that Apple is trying to make a flexible iPad with graphene but these rumor have not been confirmed.

Nanowires are made in a manner similar to the one I described but I have to admit that I don't know the details such as saturation levels and the like. One of their theoretical applications is higher capacity computing.


	3. Prologue Pt 3

**Prologue Pt. 3**

Back with Optimus and the rest of his crew, they had quickly found out that content of a digital image was a variable when calculation the amount of time that it took to circumnavigate the planet. Everywhere they turned their helms, an image of them strolling out of Omega flashed off some vidscreen or another. The sudden fame was taking their toll on all of them, with the exception of Bumblebee, who seemed to revel in it.

"…and then I said 'you know, you're even uglier from this angle!'" finished Bumblebee as the crowd roared in laughter. Prime and the others had _hoped_ to get to relax a little in the mess hall. Now they were wondering why they had considered that a possibility with Bumblebee around.

"Come on 'Bee," called out Jazz, "we should meet up with Ratchet and Arcee soon."

"In a minute," responded the yellow speedster, "lemme tell you something about Earth. The water will rust you in a nanoclick and all the nature gets old faster than you can scream 'Megatron', but it has the best oil that side of the periphery!"

"Come on," sighed Optimus as he dragged Bumblebee off by the scruff of the neck, leaving a few oil connoisseurs with mental note to visit Earth sometime.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, back at the Metroplex Ultra Magnus had called a short meeting to discuss the recent events. The first order of the day, Sari Sumdac.<p>

"What can you tell us of young Sari, Perceptor?" called out Ultra Magnus from his chair in the Autobot High Council.

"The technorganic is armed far too well to be a civilian model," he stated, "although I do have a theory, more testing will be required before an accurate assumption of her origins can be made. At the moment, I advise that she be kept under close observation."

"What can you tell us as of now?" insisted Alpha Trion.

"She is definitely a customized protoform," started the red mech, "however, further testing is necessary to separate the original functions from the ones that were provided by the Allspark's energy."

"What about her current functions?" asked Botanica.

"At this time I have witnessed a Skyboom shield not unlike that of Sentinel Prime's," he began as the screen behind him lit up to show the moment in which Wheeljack's rifle exploded. He slowed down the feed to show a large blue rectangle emerge from the blue ornament of her left wrist-guard, "she has also shown to be highly skilled with machines. Although the modifications that she made to Wheeljack's weapon did not function as expected, she reportedly assisted with the construction of the Space Bridge on Earth and the Wingblade jetpack that is currently installed on Optimus Prime."

"To what is her intelligence attributed?" asked Botanica.

"Uncertain, it may have been installed by her designer or it may be an attribute from her organic components."

"How can slimy be smart due to her…slimy…parts," said Sentinel Prime in an attempt to mock the technorganic, "they're… slimy."

"From what I have understood, the human that she imprinted on has a superior processor compared to the rest of the population," stated Perceptor, "it is possible that she may have scanned-,"

He stopped as he came to a sudden realization.

"Perceptor?" said Ultra Magnus, urging him to continue.

"I need the designs of all the personal modifications of Optimus Prime's crew as well as the Decepticons that have spent any amount of time on Earth," he said suddenly, startling the reigning Magnus, "I also need permission to review her primary coding and all of her weapons."

"Why exactly?" asked Alpha.

"I have a theory."

* * *

><p>"…and then I said 'you know, you're even uglier from this angle!'" finished Bumblebee as a new crowd roared in laughter.<p>

"Yo, 'Bee. Couldn't you at least use a different story?" asked Jazz as he rubbed his optics from beneath his visor, "that one got old by the sixteenth time."

"But that's the best one!"

"I'm gonna need some high-grade," moaned Bulkhead. They had arrived at Maccadam's Old Oil House thirty decacycles ago, and Bumblebee had already managed to tell that story to thirty different groups that would gather to see the heroes of Cybertron, only to leave dejectedly once they realized that they weren't up for a social visit. Their welds were still tender, and only the annoying yellow scout was up for any sort of chat.

"Make that three," sounded off a gruff voice to his left. Bulkhead and the others turned their heads at the sound to see Ratchet and Arcee. Ratchet was earnestly trying to polish something in his servos that apparently wasn't too happy with the attention. The fact that he was using a large, rotary buffer probably didn't help.

"Four," said a voice behind him, and the group turned to see Wheeljack walk in. They couldn't help but gape at the blackened armor and the number of dents that had appeared since the last time they'd seen him.

"What happened to you?" asked Bumblebee.

"The usual," said the charred mech as he sat down and called for a waitress, "tried a new experiment, it blew in my faceplates, and my new assistant is now getting polished."

"The frag she's your assistant!" grumbled Ratchet as he kept polishing the squirming creature in his servos, "you almost took her offline! If that shield of hers hadn't activated when it did, she'd be a plie of scrap right about now!"

"Better than turning into a tire rim," pointed out Arcee, pointing at the creature on his palm, "you might want to stop before she purges her tank on your servo."

"Huh? Oh, sorry kid."

He took the buffer of his palm and turned it off to reveal Sari spinning on her stomach like a record player on his hand. When she slowed down enough, one could have sworn that her optics had turned into spirals for a second.

"Ratch," she said as she stood up, only to lean on his thumb for support, "I love you, but would you mind getting me a smaller buffer?" then she slipped and fell into the cup of coolant that Bumblebee had been drinking.

* * *

><p>"Lick! Table three!"<p>

"On it Light!"

Lickety-Split had had a good shift so far, with the celebrations that had ensued from Megatron's capture she'd be rolling in tips for the next three orns. She and her sister, Lightbright had been working the dinner rush for the last three mega cycles. Though Lightbright was only there for that orn after the Elite Guard had given all of the spare crew the day off.

"Table three… figures." She muttered as she spotted the rowdy table in the back.

"Welcome to Maccadam's Old Oil House. I hope that you have been enjoying your complimentary coolant," she said with practiced ease, as she collected the empty cups, "my name is Lickety-Split and I'll be-,"

"STOP!"

She nearly dropped the cups when the whole group shouted. An older model, a medic she supposed, leaned forward and grabbed a half-empty cup that she'd been about to put a second cup on top of.

"I'm sorry sir, I though you-," she stopped her apology mid sentence when the mech reached into the cup and pulled out a diminutive, yellow femme, "Whoa."

"You alright kid?" he asked as he shook her to get the coolant off her

"Been better," she said as he laid her on the table, she looked a little woozy, "Would be better if you hadn't shaken me like a rag doll."

"Holy frag, she's tiny!"

"Not helping," moaned the small femme, "Can I help you?"

"Uh, sorry," coughed Lickety-Split awkwardly before regaining her composure, "as I was saying, my name is Lickety-Split and I'll be you waitress this evening."

"Ran out of the cool names huh?" apparently she was angry about the comment regarding her height or lack thereof.

"Sari!" barked out the second tallest mech, a flyer from the looks of him, "Uh, I mean say you're sorry!"

"Wha- she called me tiny!"

"Welcome to my world," said a voice to the left and Split took notice of a yellow mech with horn-like sensors.

_Hellooo handsome,_ she thought, with a slight blush. He was a Deluxe class like her and had an off-planet vehicle mode from the looks of him. As a matter of fact…

"Where are y'all from?" she asked, "never seen those alt. modes before."

"We just rolled in from Earth," said the flyer, "nice to have a normal conversation for once."

"Really? Isn't that where that Opti…mu… ," she slowed her processor as she took in the fresh welds, the foreign vehicle modes, and the large wings on the flyer, "HOLY FRAG you're Optimus Prime!"

She thought she heard Lightbright face-palm behind her, but that could have been her imagination.

"By Primus, it's an honor!" she said as she rapidly shook his servo, before she noticed what she was doing, "Ahem, sorry about that. Now, your orders?"

* * *

><p>After Lickety took their orders and forwarded them to the cook, she rushed over to fetch Lightbright from the bar.<p>

"Why the FRAG did you not tell me that I was serving OPTIMUS PRIME and his SEXY SCOUT!"

"Well I figured it was obvious," she said, "besides,- sexy scout?"

Split blushed as she clicked her index digits together, "well, yeah. He was kinda… cute."

"You're sure it's not just because he's short too?" Light looked over at the yellow mech, "He's still taller than you though." She paused to let that last comment bowl her sister over and she grinned. "Anyways, most bots seem to notice when they serve one of the most famous Autobots in the history of Cybertron and then they tend to go fanbot on them. I was counting on your blank processor to serve them normally."

"Blank processor?" the pompoms on Lickety's helm spun as she processed the phrase before they stopped and she glared furiously at her sister, "ARE YOU CALLING ME STUPID!?"

"You said it not me," Bright brushed her off, "anyways, did you notice that little bot on the table? I thought the Minicons were extinct."

"Want me to ask?" said Lickety, her rage apparently forgotten, "I have to give them their energon anyways."

"Neh, don't bother them," said Lightbright, "just give them their fuel."

"Order UP, table three!" shouted out the cook from the window, "Six units of oil, five high grade, six mid grade, one order of titanium triglyceride, two gold disks, six platinum melts and… an oil cap? Split! Get your afterburners over here!"

"Coming Crankshaft!" Lick yelled back, "Later Bright."

"Later Licky."

"Don't call me Licky!"

* * *

><p>"Hello, Cybertron to Bumblebee," called out Sari, "stop staring at the waitress's aft and pay attention."<p>

"I wasn't staring at her aft!" he protested, then he paused and added quietly, "not the whole time anyways."

"That's what you think," cut in Jazz, "just ask her for her com freq if you're interested."

"Uh, how about I don't?" he countered, "I'm not too good with the femmes."

"No, really?" teased Sari, "With your great personality, high speed, and shiny stingers I figured you'd be beating them off with a stick."

"You're making fun of me aren't you?"

"So why don't you ask her for her com?" asked Arcee.

"I'll be your wingman, er, girl," proposed Sari.

"After we refuel please," pointed out Ratchet, "I prefer to have dinner before the show."

"Come on Hatchet, you too?" jested Wheeljack.

"Hatchet?" Bumblebee.

"Glitch off Ratch-," the engineer stopped his classic rhyme at the sound of Ratchet opening the subspace on his back where he kept his tools, "and the femmes can tell you the rest."

"Why us?" Asked Arcee.

"Because Ratchet would probably weld his sparkplating shut if he ever hurt YOU and the little one would get cut in half if he tried."

"Again with the little!" yelled Sari, "I'm pretty tall for an eight year old human you know!"

"But you're also the size of a cyberfly," pointed out Bumblebee, "though you do pack quite a punch, and I should know."

"Not helping."

"Speaking of punches," cut in Wheeljack, "how did you make that shield in my lab? I came out with more scratches than you from my rifle's punch."

"I don't know," she admitted as she examined her left wrist guard, "I just held up my hand and… POW!"

The blue rectangle on the back of her hand popped out and opened to project a light blue riot shield as long as she was tall.

"I tinkered with it for a while before Ratchet came in with his buffer of doom and check it out!" she lengthened and shortened the width and height of the shield, "Pretty cool huh?"

"A skyboom shield?" asked Wheeljack as he projected a green laser onto her shield, "Not unlike Sentinel's, but a lot more advanced."

"What's a lot more advanced?" asked a pompous voice behind them.

"Major Chin Sir, Private Slimer, reporting for duty!" Sari said with a mock salute.

"Mute IT!" warned the Major Chin himself, "I've still got half a mind made up to step on you!"

"Check it out! As much as I hate having _anything_ to do with you, we're shield buddies!"

"Remind me to have my personal mod changed later," groaned Sentinel after taking a look at her shield, "at least I still got my lance."

"Oh suck it up Major Chin," said Bumblebee, "Sari's like a German Army knife! More tools than she'll ever need!"

"Swiss Army knife," corrected Sari.

"Swiss, German, Iaconian whatever!" yelled out the blue Prime, "I've been instructed to take Slimy back to the Metroplex for more testing and you misfits for a secondary report!"

"After our energon," pointed out Ratchet.

"After a nap!" continued Sari, "I still have to sleep eight hours each day."

"That never kept you from staying up before," pointed out Ratchet.

"Sleep? What the frag is sleep?" asked Sentinel.

"It's not unlike our recharge cycles," said Optimus, "only, they have to do it once every sixteen megacycles for eight megacycles."

"Y'all spend a third of your lifecycles in recharge?" asked Jazz.

"Sorta," admitted Sari, "we need to load up on serotonin that we make when we sleep."

"Where did you learn that?" asked Arcee.

"I read a whole mess of medical stuff on the way here," she explained, "I needed something to do with Bee hogging the game."

"You're the one that forgot your controller!"

"And you're the one that packed the games!"

"We're getting sidetracked," interrupted Optimus, "again. Tell the council that we'll be over in two megacycles and that we'll bring Sari with us in ten."

"This isn't up for discussion!"

"You do know that we melt when we run out of serotonin right?" asked Sari with a grin, "if we're leaving early I'm riding in you. I can get my kicks in the Well from watching scrape my goop out of your interior."

"We leave in two megacycles, no less!" yelled Sentinel with a slightly squeaky voice as he shuddered at the mental image, then he looked at the bar and walked off muttering something about high grade.

"You MELT!?" Barked Ratchet, "You've been risking your life every night just to play your slagging videogames!?"

"I made that up," said Sari as she sat down with her legs crossed, "we just get depressed."

"Then why did you tell him you melted?" asked Bumblebee.

"One, because I need to sleep, and two, it was hilarious!"

"Primus forbid that she meets the twins." Groaned Wheeljack.

"Sorry for the wait," called Lickety from behind them, "let's see, seven units of mineral oil, five high-grade energon, one mid-grade with gold shavings, titanium triglyceride bars, two gold disks, six platinum melts and… an oil cap. For teeny I guess."

"Mute it Licky," said Sari as she took the old cap, which looked like a punch bowl from her vantage point.

"Frag it, not you too!"

"Thank you," said Optimus, "mine's the one with iron shavings."

"Cooper slivers," called Jazz as Lickety passed out the energon.

"Lead pellets," Bulkhead.

"Large mid-grade," said Bumblebee and everyone turned to him, "I'm a lightweight alright!"

"Silver rods," called Wheeljack.

"Silicon powder," said Ratchet as he was handed his own drink.

"Praxian crystals," called Arcee and, once again, the table went quiet as they turned to her, "What? You think I'm a lightweight just because I'm a femme?"

"What about me?" asked Sari.

"Oh, here have some of mine," said Wheeljack as he took the oil cap and dipped it in his energon.

"Never had energon before," she said as she swirled the blue-pink liquid in her oil cap.

"How'd you stay alive without energon?" asked Lickety, alerting them that she had not yet left their table, "is that Minicon thing?"

"Uh, yeah," replied Sari, she'd have to ask what a Minicon was somewhere along the line.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, how'd you survive the Minicon extermination?" asked the waitress, "I thought the Decepticons had wiped y'all out."

"We found her," cut in Optimus.

"In a stasis pod," continued Bumblebee.

"On an asteroid!" finished Bulkhead.

"We think her creators launched her off planet before the extermination," explained Ratchet, "or even before her activation. She ran off her fuel reserves for a long time so she's only had intravenous energon."

"I see," said Split thoughtfully, "well I'd love to keep chatting, but I got other tables to tend. Call me if you need anything."

As she left, both Sari and Arcee noticed that she peeked at Bumblebee for a second as he tried NOT to look at her. As she left, they also caught him looking at her aft, again.

"Just ask her for her com freq already," said Arcee.

"Want me to get it?" asked Sari.

"No!" yelled Bumblebee, "uh, I mean, I'll do it myself."

As he left, both if the femmes had a hard time holding in their laughter.

"Ten cube creds say he chickens out," said Jazz.

"Twenty," said Wheeljack.

"Deal," cut in Bulkhead and Sari, despite the fact that the later had no idea on what a cube cred was.

* * *

><p>"So uh, I was wondering-no that's pathetic," muttered Bumblebee as he headed over to the waitress, "let's see." He spotted a nearby mirror, and stuck a pose, "You! Me! Movies? That's even worse!"<p>

"Movies sound great!"

"GAH!" yelled out Bumblebee, only to find Lickety-Split hiding half her face behind the tray she was carrying, "So, uh, you heard that?"

She smiled as she reached into one of her pompoms to pull out a chip.

"Here's my com frequency, I get off in ten megacycles."

"Uh, right!" stuttered Bee, "Thanks Licky."

"Don't call me Licky!" she snapped, "every time someone calls me Licky, I feel like ripping out their optics, and shoving them up their tailpipes!"

"G-g-got it."

"Ah, sorry," muttered Split as she hid behind her (bent) tray, "I just hate it when my sister calls me Licky."

"I hate it when everybot calls me little," said Bee, "I can sympathize."

"So, I'll see you later," said Split before she, well, split.

As Bumblebee headed back to his table, he couldn't help but gape at the sight of Wheeljack and Jazz handing their credits over to Sari and Bulkhead. The former of which was sitting smugly on the small pile of credits.

"You betted on me?"

"Yeah, you got us some of these, things," said Sari as she examined one of the hexagonal coins, each of which was twice the size of her head, "what is this thing?"

"Money," said Bulkhead simply as he put away his earnings, "they're called Cube credits."

"Why?"

"Because they used to be worth one mid-grade energon cube each," said Ratchet, "well, before the inflation anyways. Nowadays, it seems like the cubes are made of solarium."

"Tell me about it," said Arcee as she looked at the menu, "high-grade was three cubes the last time I was here, now it's up to twenty! I don't' even want to know what happened to my savings."

"Ultra Magnus said you´d be compensated for your service to the Autobot Commonwealth," said Optimus.

"I hope so, I haven't even checked if my house is still standing."

"Your neighborhood was destroyed in the war," said Ratchet grimly, "it was the battle that nearly took Omega offline as a matter of fact. It's now a memorial park."

"So I have to start over," said Arcee sadly.

"We'll help you out," said Optimus, "we can even try to get the Constructicons here to help you build a new home."

"If we can get them away from their oil," muttered Ratchet, though he wanted to keep them clear of something, or rather someone, else as well.

"Not to ruin the moment guys," called out Sari as she held up a Cube, "but how am I supposed to carry this around?"

"You'll have to open an account," said Jazz, "deal only with digital cubes too."

"Hmm, okay then problem number two," she said, holding up her bottle cap, "how do I drink this?"

"Just take off your mouth guard and- oh," said Bumblebee, as he realized the issue.

"What?" asked Bulkhead.

"If I take off my mouth guard and somebot peeks, I'll be stomped into a pancake."

"Well, lil' lady, this is where your size comes in handy," pointed out Jazz, "you're not too easy to notice at that size."

"Try to drink from behind the menu though," pointed out Ratchet as he propped up the metallic plating.

"Gotcha." She said as she took a sip, "This is pretty good. Tastes… lightning-y." she then proceeded to down half the cap.

"Lightning-y?" Bumblebee.

"Yeah, like ZAP and POW!" she responded before collapsing into a fit of giggles.

"Ooookay then," said the yellow mech as Sari kept giggling, "Ratch, I think Sari knocked a few circuits loose with that blast."

"I don't think that's it," he muttered as Sari downed the whole cap, "Wheeljack, what did you order again?"

"High grade with silver rods," he said as the grinder in his grill shredded one of the metal bars, "Why?"

Ratchet only pointed to Sari, who was giggling in content as Bumblebee tried to pry her off Prime's high-grade.

"Oh."

"She's not even a vorn old!" yelled Optimus as he finally managed to remove her from his cube, "not to mention her size doesn't make it any easier on her!"

"Don' be meen and share!" she whined, "daddy say- he say we 'ave to share!"

"Her tiny systems already overloaded," observed Wheeljack. AKA, captain Obvious.

"I'm not tiny!" she cried out, unleashing a volley of energon orbs of which most hit the ceiling, "when someone calls me tiny, I – I –make funny faces!"

"We should take her home," said Bumblebee, poking her on the side.

"Remind me to have some cubes made for her size," said Ratchet, as he put down the tray he'd used to shield Arcee from the energon blasts, "that oil cap was the same as a stock storage cube for us."

"So she's actually a heavy drinker," said Wheeljack, "well, for her size anyways."

"I'll take her to my apartment," proposed Optimus as he started to stand up.

"Nah, my place is closer," said Bumblebee as he gently picked her up despite her protests, "I'll see you guys at the Metroplex."

As he struggled to keep wriggling the technorganic femme in his servos as one would hold a fussing infant, he waved goodbye to Lickety-Split as he walked out the door, who unexpectedly rushed over.

"You're leaving?" she said with a hint of disappointment.

"I have to, before she collapses," responded the yellow mech, "her kind has to recharge for eight megacycles every sixteen and the high-grade she drank is not going to help."

"Really?" asked the femme, as she poked her in the side.

"That tickles!" giggled Sari, showing that she wasn't completely out of it.

"Kinda cute like this," said Split as Sari beeped, "you know, when she's not-,"

She stopped and stared as she tried to keep her lower jaw from unhinging.

"When she's not what?" he asked before he looked down at Sari.

"Put her down – slowly," said the femme, shock written all over her faceplates.

"Why?" then the scout looked at Sari. She was snuggling against his warm spark chamber, mocha skin making soft contact against the warm plating. Mocha skin. Skin.

Bumblebee's processor worked slowly as he realized that Lickety had since picked up her tray defensively and seemed ready to squash Sari flat the second Bumblebee put her down.

"Wai-wai-wai-wait!" stuttered Bumblebee, "Put that down, she's harmless!"

"It's an or-mmph!" started Split before Bumblebee slapped his servo against her mouth.

"I can explain later, for now please keep this to yourself!"

She looked thoughtfully at Sari before nodding. She then peeled off Bee's servo.

"She's an organic!" she hissed.

"Technorganic and trust me when I tell you that even the normal ones are harmless."

"But Sentinel-,"

"Is full of slag, trust me on that one."

She looked at the giggling creature on the minibot's servos before turning towards the kitchen.

"CRANK! I'm taking my break!"

"You got one megacycle, no more!" replied the cook.

"Roger that!" then to Bumblebee, "You can explain why I shouldn't just step on her on the way to your place."

"Huh?" uttered the yellow scout before thrusting his servos towards her, "Fine whatever, here."

Split looked at the small organic on his palms.

"Eh?"

"I need to load her into me."

"Oh," she gingerly picked her up as she rolled over to grab onto her thumb like a body pillow. Lickety was pleasantly surprised to find that no slime was spewing out of what she figured was her mouth and she was actually quite pleasant to hold as her soft skin warmed up her palms.

"Alright, load her in gently into the backseat," said Bumblebee, already in his vehicle mode. Lickety noticed that earth vehicles were a lot boxier than the ones on Cybertron.

"You have seats in there?" asked she asked as she knelt to the open side panel/door.

"Yeah, when we first arrived on earth, we thought that the humans' vehicles were actually other bots, so we scanned them to blend in. The first time I rolled into a parking tower, I actually thought I'd accidentally stumbled into a morgue!"

"I see," she said as 'Bee wrapped the seatbelts around Sari to keep her from moving around too much.

"All right, my department's not too far from here. Ten decacycles west."

"Cool," replied Split as she transformed into her three-wheeler alt mode.

"Nice ride," noted the yellow scout, "love the rims."

"Thank you, they were a gift."

* * *

><p>Now then, special thank you to everyone that has reviewed my story. Especially UninhibitedAmbitions.<p> 


	4. Prologue Pt 4

**Prologue Pt. 4**

"Boy works fast," admitted Jazz after Bumblebee left with Sari and the waitress.

"Little too fast," came a voice from the right, "I thought that femme was better than that."

"'Bee's a good kid," cut in Ratchet, "not a smart kid, but a good kid."

"Well, I hope so, for his sake," muttered the femme, "not to mention my sister's."

"Lick's your sister?" asked Jazz, "I knew you looked too young to be her creator."

"Uh, thanks?" replied the femme hesitantly, "anyways, the name's Lightbright."

"Nice to meet you," said Jazz, "mah name's Jazz."

"Nice to meet you too," responded the femme, "so what brings the greatest heroes in cybertronian history here."

"What else?" replied Ratchet, "Even before the Great War, this has always been my favorite greasy valve."

"Oh yeah, you're a veteran aren't you?" she remembered, "Hatchet was it?"

Wheeljack snorted into his energon, earning a glare from Ratchet.

"It's Ratchet actually," he replied, "the glitch-head wiping Energon off his grill is Wheeljack."

"Pleasure," she responded flatly.

"Pleasure's all mine," he replied before grumbling, "get rid of the mouth he says, the grill's more convenient he says, I should have asked Percy why he didn't try this on himself."

"You've been grumbling about that for vorns. Why don't you ask him to make you a new mouth?"

"They don't make parts of my model anymore," he groaned, "makes repairs a serious pain in the afterburners. I had to pay 600 cubes for a pinkie the last time I blew up. A pinkie!"

"There's one way to lower your medical bills," pondered Arcee.

"What's that?"

"Stop blowing yourself to powder every other vorn!" replied Ratchet.

"But that's the fun part!"

"Ehem," came the sound of Sentinel clearing his vocals, "if you malfunctions are quite done, the megacycle's up. Time to get moving."

* * *

><p>"How can they stand being so… squishy?" pondered Lickety as she examined the half asleep technorganic on her servos, "It'd drive me crazy, being so vulnerable. They don't even wear armor!"<p>

"I think they're used to it since most other organics are just as squishy," replied Bumblebee as he rummaged around in a drawer, "we once got this real scare with a 'con named Soundwave. He sent our processors into a virtual reality program that made us think we were humans." He shuddered, "not an experience I want to repeat. Driving stinks!"

"What are you looking for?"

"Humans are picky about what they recharge on," explained the scout, "they prefer soft things since their skin is pretty sensitive. I was looking for something soft enough for Sari to use."

"Sorry?"

"No, Sari, that's her name."

"Humans are weird."

"Tell me about it," he replied as he overturned a drawer, only for several rims to spill out, "but they're pretty cool too. Since they're so squishy, they like to make things that help them out. They don't have any built-in weapons like other organics so they compensate by making some."

"Other organics have weapons?" asked Split as she looked into a drawer for something soft as well.

"Sorta, Prowl explained it to me once, but I wasn't really listening," explained Bumblebee before sadly adding, "I really should have listened. Anyways, if I remember correctly humans are smart so they don't actually need any of the claws and teeth like other organics."

"So none of them shoot slime or acid."

"I think some other organics do," replied 'Bee from a closed in which he kept spare plating, "Sari even told me that there's a shrimp that uses guns or pistols. Anyways, most of their weapons are built for defense against other organics, from what Sari told me they would just send us to the wash racks."

"Huh, so all that Sentinel said-,"

"Is complete driller slag," confirmed the yellow scout, before popping out from behind a closet holding a large buffer, "this is all I got. Well, at least it's new so it's clean."

He took the buffer out of its bag and put it on the table. He then called Lickety over to put Sari on the soft buffer. It was made of synthetic fibers, but it was also the only non-metallic object he had and was pretty soft.

"I'm not twired!" she whined before she opened her mouth in a yawn.

"You were saying?"

"Would it be a bad idea to keep one as a pet?" asked Split, "they're kinda cute."

"The humans probably wouldn't like that," responded 'Bee, "they're very protective of their young. Maybe even more than we are."

"Um, 'Bee, she's leaking."

"What?" he looked back at Sari, who had suddenly sat up and started crying, "what's wrong Sari?"

"I'm swowwie Bumbybee."

"Why?"

"I din meen to huht yoo," she sobbed, "I'm swowwieeee!"

She was bawling at that point. Leaving Lickety utterly confused about the situation.

"She hurt you?"

"She must be talking about that time she lost control of her body," explained 'Bee, "she upgraded herself with energy from the Allspark to take out a rock lord and lost control. Next thing you know, I'm on the ground with a stab wound next to my spark chamber."

Sari only cried louder, making Bumblebee curse himself for telling that story near her to begin with.

"It's all right Sari, I'm not mad. Really."

"Pwomise?"

"Promise."

The small femme finally smiled and curled up in the middle of the buffer to sleep. Bumblebee then picked up the buffer and carried it to his room to let Sari sleep peacefully.

"I hadn't taken care of her like that in a while," he explained as he came back, sitting down on the metallic couch, "I have to admit, I kinda missed it."

"How did she become half organic?" asked Lickety-Split, "You said something about the Allspark, did that have something to do with it?"

"Sorta," he replied as he took out a bottle of coolant from the fridge and served it into two rectangular glasses, "she was smaller when we first met her, maybe half her current size and she was always technorganic though even she didn't know that. No one was more surprised than she was when we found out."

"How did she not know?" replied the femme as she took the glass 'Bee offered, "I mean, I'm sure I'd notice if I was half organic."

"Except that organics have skin and other squishy parts to cover her cybertronian parts. She didn't even need energon up until recently."

"So how did she find out?"

"It was during a raid to Megatron's base," he explained, "he was trying to make a space bridge to transwarp to Cybertron and even captured Sari's dad to help him build it. Anyway, when the whole thing went to the pit, the cave collapsed and crushed the space bridge. Next thing we know, Sari had cut her elbow open on a rock and had exposed sparking circuits."

"So which came first, the techno or the organic?"

"The techno, I don't know the details but apparently Isaac, that's Sari's dad, found a protoform. It scanned him and boom, instant Sari. Eight stellar cycles later, we meet her and a stellar cycle after that she upgraded herself into her current form. She's actually pretty tall for a human her age."

"Okay, one last question."

"Shoot."

"What's a dad?"

* * *

><p>"We are here to discuss the protective measures that will be granted to the technorganic, Sari Sumdac," stated Ultra Magnus stoically to Optimus and his team, "Botanica, your proposals?"<p>

"She will obviously have to maintain her organic half a secret," she stated, "but we will also need a cover for her size."

"We already came up with one," cut in Optimus, "she's a Minicon that we stumbled across during a maintenance run before we found the Allspark. She was accidentally activated a few days prior to the rock lord attack on Detroit."

"A Minicon would be the only thing that size that could injure a rock lord," confirmed Wheeljack as he scratched his chin in thought, "Though I'm not sure they could kill one."

"We could always say that she bonded with Optimus." Proposed Cliffjumper.

The room went silent.

"But I-she-," gasped the aforementioned Prime as the rest of the councilors (minus Perceptor) stared at him with some fairly realistic fish impersonations. Sentinel only did a gagging motion as his tanks threatened to purge themselves.

"For the love of-! Not THAT kind of bonding!" he clarified, "the thing that Minicons can do! You know, where they become upgrades for their host?"

"Would you mind saying that first!" yelled Sentinel, "I almost purged my tanks!"

"That would explain things," agreed Bulkhead with an optic twitching at Sentinel, "but what if someone asks for a demonstration? Sari's not symbiotic or a Minicon!"

"We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there," sighed Botanica, "where is she staying?"

"She's sleeping over at Bumblebee's apartment for the time being," replied Optimus.

"We will provide a home for her, but she will need a cybertronian designation," proposed Alpha Trion, "her human designation is too conspicuous. She looks like a Goldburst to me."

"Nah, Goldstreak is better," countered Cliffjumper.

"Sunstreak?" pondered Botanica.

"Too close to Sunny's name," pointed out Cliff, "how about her powers? How does Orb sound?"

"Orb? Really?" asked Arcee with a raised optic ridge, "maybe Ariel? No wait, that was my sister's name… I got nothing. Ratchet?"

"Yeah, how about we ask her later," he said with an irritated tone, "this is really the least of our problems with Megatron's trial coming up."

"Uh, yeah, good point," agreed Botanica, "sorry, it was too much like naming a sparkling."

"Optimus Prime, you have an urgent call from Bumblebee," stated the PA system.

"Patch him through," he replied as he turned away from the council members to take the call to his com link, "Optimus Prime here, what's going-?"

The energon in his veins froze.

* * *

><p>Sorry for the wait guys, I've actually had this chapter ready for the past few weeks but was originally going to be part of a longer chapter. The next five chapters are suppremely important so I won't be publishing them until I am certain they're ready. To hold you guys off until then, how about a game?<p>

When I first started writting this story, I wanted the setting to be placed in 2059 to poke fun at anyone that bought into the 2060 end of days prophecy. The first person to tell me which famous alchymist came up with this prophecy gets a preview into either the pairing or into the best battle scene. There is a third option of the oneshot of your choice. Have fun!

***EDIT***

Congratulations to Toons and Anime for having won my little contest! Your prize is in the works.

You guys may have noticed that the chapter is longer now. That's because in my thickheadedness, I accidentally chopped it in half when I was editing. The next chapter should be posted within the week. Sorry for the wait, but my laptop got comandeered for the family business.

Another thing that you guys may have noticed is the slight change in the description. this is due to the fact that my stories will now be classified by which universe that they are set in. This does not matter much now, but in the future all of my fanfics will in the U1 category will be linked to one another even if the characters don't show up in the same fanfic. This just means that they may or may not have some effect on one another. It will mostly be minor things like the name of a character showing up, but it matters to me.


	5. Prologue Pt 5

**Prologue Pt. 5**

Life had not been easy for Issac Sumdac since the departure of the Autobots. For one he missed his daughter, not only would she have been useful in the negotiations that had been plaguing his conference hall since reconstruction of Detroit began, but he also had no one to talk to. Sure his workers were always available, but it was a grating experience to talk to someone who wanted a promotion or more funding to their pet proyects.

"Mr. Sumdac? The representative from Blackrock Industries is here," called the temporary secretary. Doctor Matsumoto was not happy with her temporary demotion to secretary, but at least she couldn't blow anything up like this.

"Yes, send him in."

He continued his paperwork as he waited for the representative, mildly wondering whether he should move his office to a lower floor. Even with the elevators it would be at least two minutes before the representative arrived, and he wasn't too fond of heights anymore thanks to Megatron.

The door opened, revealing, much to his surprise, a young woman with short blonde hair, no older than twenty five. He recognized her immediately.

"Josie Beller! What a surprise! How's my favorite intern?"

"Hey doc," she greeted back before walking up to him for a hug, "sorry about barging in, but I can't get a word out of your secretary."

"Ah yes, Dr. Matsumoto," he said, "Her voice is too low, so we need to use an amplifier to understand her."

"Why do you have an engineer as a secretary?" Sumdac had high standards, but this was a bit much.

"This is just temporary until we get the automated service desk back online. She wasn't too happy about it either, but at least she can't blow anything up without a laboratory."

Josie just raised an eyebrow at that last comment.

"It's a regrettably short story that I'd rather not get into," he shuddered remembering that dark day, how she had set that automatic hydrant prototype on fire he would never know. She certainly took after her mentor, "Anyways, what can I do for you?"

"Well, I came representing Blackrock Industries' nanotechnology firm."

"Really?" he was impressed, she had left Sumdac Systems on the year prior to the Autobots' arrival, "And here I thought I finally had some company."

"Sorry, sir. I know it's been though with Sari in the hospital."

"Yes, but she's stable now. We might have to use some endo-prosthetic prototypes to help her walk again though."

The practiced lie came out of his mouth with ease. He had come up with the cover story with Fanzone's and Mayor Edzel's (and his secretary's) help. Sari had been injured in the rock lord incident and had been in the hospital since. They had even managed to tweak the records to make it look like she had been born at the Detroit General ten years ago. If they could keep her from being seen for six years or so, then all would be perfect.

"Endo-prosthetics? Isn't that a little extreme?"

"So is having your skeleton crushed to gravel," he replied, "she might have some trouble at the airports, but overall I think that this is the best option."

"I'm not so sure," she countered, tapping her chin in thought "the work we do at Blackrock involves a mix of stem-cell regeneration and nanobots to reconstruct limbs. The nanites take the place of the original cells, eventually replicating the original lost limb."

"Really?" this was interesting, "How did that go? Our own experimentation into nanotechnology had limited success."

"Yeah, I heard about megaroach," she chuckled, "still, it was rather opportune of the Autobots to show up when they did."

"Really?" he asked, "how so?"

"Well, doesn't it seem a little _convenient_ for them to show up just as a monster cockroach powered by microscopic _robots_ was running rampant?"

"Ah, that. Well it turns out that's what woke them up," he explained, "they had been in stasis for a long time under that lake."

"I dunno," she muttered with her arms crossed, "I don't trust them."

"That's what you said about the tacobots."

"Those things kept giving me the wrong change!" she replied, "and why tacos!?"

"Oh, please we fixed that glitch long before you left!" he said, "And everyone loves tacos. Especially after people figured out what _real_ Mexican food looked like. My worst regret as a child was that time I overdid it at Taco Bell."

"Yeah, I _really_ don't need to hear that story again," Isaac could be surprisingly descriptive with problematic bowel movements, "and stop trying to change the subject!"

"I'm not, you're just too easily distracted" smirked the older man, "and you worry too much! The Autobots have proved their loyalty a thousand times over."

"Yeah, but you're way too much of a goody two shoes," she snapped, "Remember Powell?"

"Porter was a friend of mine since high school," he reminded her, "he helped me build up this company from the ground up. I have no idea why he changed the way he did."

"Simple, he met a guy," Sumdac raised an eyebrow, "well, several guys really. All of them have a green complexion and most are named Benjamin."

"Yes, I suppose you're right," he admitted, slouching back into his chair, "it's a shame really. He used to be such a charitable fellow."

"Honestly?" asked Josie skeptically, it was hard to imagine the portly businessman as anything other than a greedy ass.

"Yes, he used to collect blankets for the local homeless shelter back home in Pew Pew," he explained, "I always saw him at every fund raiser and charity auction and the like. I suppose he began to change after his mother died. Sumdac Systems was just barely taking off at the time, and he didn't have money to pay for the treatment."

"What did she die of?"

"You know, I don't quite remember," he admitted, "something about a growth in her bone marrow. A simple transplant would have done the trick, but we had just spent the last of our savings in our first factory. This was back in 38 I believe, right in the middle of the war."

"Ah, yeah. Medicine was expensive back then, from what I've heard."

"Everything was expensive back then," he clarified, "the Third War is the reason that we never accepted military funding. It is simply not worth it to know that your life's work is out there, causing mayhem and destruction."

"Yeah, I bet Powell _loved_ that," muttered Josie.

"Yes, he wasn't too happy at the time," admitted the old engineer, "but back to business. What exactly is Blackrock expecting from an alliance?"

"Mainly assistance with research into providing energy for the nanobots," answered Ms. Beller with a business tone, "although I disagree, Blackrock industries is interested in using Autobot technology in our nanobots."

"You want to use Energon?" asked Isaac with a raised eyebrow.

"Is that what it's called?"

"Well yes, though that's all I really know about it," he admitted, "the Autobots insist that energon is too dangerous for organics to work with. It is volatile at the best of times, and explosive when mishandled. I also noticed that it is highly radioactive when I took a Geiger up to a small drop that was left behind and the Autobots say that it disrupts carbon bonds. It burned away in my short experiment, before you ask."

He wasn't about to tell her about the gallon he had extracted from Megatron's remains or his attempts at a synthetic version of the stuff. Ratchet had warned him that even their own attempts at synthetic energon had turned the experimental turborats highly aggressive.

Besides, business is business.

"Radioactive," muttered Josie, "well, that puts medical use out of the question. Any idea about how it's made?"

"The Autobots chose not to divulge that information," replied Isaac with a regretful tone, "they seem to think we'd synthesize it after I managed to retro-engineer some of the metals they're made of."

"Could you?"

"Not without a formula or a sample. Either way, I'd have to decline. My work with the Autobots came at the price that I cannot divulge anything that I learn from them. I've only told you this much because of our history."

"I figured as much," admitted Josie, "it was worth a shot though."

"I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing," admitted the old scientist, "is there anything else that Blackrock is interested in? I'm sworn to secrecy on all cybertronian materials and engineering technology, before you ask. "

"Well that was about it. The rest was up to the lawyers."

"Really? Well, I did allot two hour for this meeting. Would you mind joining me for lunch?"

"Well, I'm not expected back until five… eh, what the heck. It'll be nice to catch up!"

"Certainly," he flicked a switch to Dr. Matsumoto, "Rise? I'll be going out for lunch. Route all important calls to my cell phone."

"Done," replied the eerily silent voice.

"That voice gives me the chills," whispered Josie.

"Me too," admitted professor Sumdac, "but at least she can't blow anything up like this."

"I heard that," replied the voice, "One more thing, my computer exploded again. Can I have a new one?"

_I spoke too soon._

"I'll have a look at the stock," he moaned, "how exactly did you manage to detonate your computer this time?"

"Well, I had this idea about nitroglycerin circuits…"

Isaac's eye twitched.

_Sari, come home soon._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

* * *

><p>Whoa, been a while. I had planned to release this chapter weeks ago but you know what they say.<p>

Sometimes life happens, sometimes shit happens, and sometimes life is shit.

I've had to study, work, fix those stupid practices at school, go to my uncle's funeral, go visit my dying grandma, and fix my work schedule while sitting in hot water with my parents for flunking three clases. Needless to say, I'll be moving out next year.

As you can see, the sole purpose of this chapter is to set the field for what Sari and the crew will be coming back to. We'll get back to the main cast in the next chapter.

Anyways, I decided that I wanted to play a game. Some of you may have noticed the easter eggs I left for you. If you didn't, watch more anime.

Throughout the remainder of this series I'll be leaving little present like this one. The first person that can get ALL of them will win a single multi-chapter fanfic of the subject of their choice. It can be some obscure, single edition tome and I WILL track it down to make the fic.

HOWEVER! If anyone decides to release any of the eggs before the series is over they will be disqualified, no questions asked.

Happy hunting!


	6. Prologue Pt 6

**Prologue Pt. 6**

Agony.

That was all Sari had known since she had awoken in a sea of white flames that licked and devoured whatever was left of her body. She had screamed in the beginning only for the flames to enter her throat and burn out her flesh-lined cyclers. Her mouth was now open in a soundless scream as it had remained for hours. Years? Decades? Centuries?

She had lost time in the sea of pain.

She could only stare at her skeletal, metallic hands. Sari Sumdac was gone.

Only The Machine remained.

But even that was burned away. Her metallic skeleton was melted into slag before the fire vaporized it, searing the pain further into her memory, into her spark.

Then, as sudden as the fire had arrived, it vanished alongside the pain. The tone of the area in which she'd been floating in cooled to a soft blue that offered little comfort to her charred and broken body. She would have cried if she had the eyes to do so. Or the head. Or the body.

She knew not her name. She knew not her race. She knew not her age.

All she knew was blue.

* * *

><p>Offline. Lifeless. Grey. Those words kept looping in Bumblebee's processor. Echoing like virulent code. Lickety-Split sat to his right, holding his numb servo.<p>

It had already been too late when he arrived. Sari's pale yellow armor had already faded to a monochromatic grey when he had made it to the hospital. Prime and the others were probably on their way to give him the chewing out of his lifecycle. Not that he didn't deserve it.

He felt numb. Barring bodily harm or starvation, cybertronians are practically immortal, and thus are not used to experiencing loss. Having lost two great friends and teammates in less than an orn, the short mech felt like his spark was tearing itself apart.

Lickety-Split, for her part, had no idea what to do. She had only experienced loss once when her creators passed on during the war, and even that had happened before she had been activated. She had been recovered from her creator's fading shell as a mere red sparkling that had not even been graced by the Allspark with a life of its own yet. Why Lightbright had even bothered to keep a non-sentient spark was beyond her. It certainly hadn't made her life easier to have a second tank to fuel, even if Lickety had done her best to help from her activation.

This was completely different. She could not truly miss her creators since she had never actually met them. Bumblebee had known the small technorganic. Laughed with her. Grieved with her.

The only thing she could think of doing, and the only thing she could really do in the end, was to hold the mech's servo as he slouched limply on the metal chair. That simple action helped more than she would ever know.

It took about an hour for the rest of his team to arrive alongside Perceptor, Ultra Magnus, and Wheeljack. Perceptor left for the morgue almost immediately, his undying curiosity drew him to the odd creature in the rust-proof containers.

Ultra Magnus stayed behind to keep an optic on Optimus, offering small words of comfort. Wheeljack simply stood awkwardly to the side, he was more experienced with death being a war veteran but had little idea as to how to deal with the endearingly short half-breed.

Arcee was visibly saddened by the loss of the femmeling that had saved her from a lifecycle of stasis. The smallest member of the team had grown on her in the few days they had known each other. She had even offered to help her find an Earth vehicle mode when they returned to her home.

Ratchet simply stood to the side for a few cycles, before a doctor by the name of Red Alert requested his assistance with a nasty case of cosmic rust. He promptly excused himself and left to perform his duty. This would not be the first time he cured a stranger after losing a friend, and he feared it would not be the last.

Jazz was outraged. He had demanded to speak to the doctor in charge only to be informed that the yellow femme had been offline since her arrival.

Bulkhead took it harder than most. He had simply zoned out on the corner. Immobile to the point that, had he not been standing fully colored before them, they would have assumed that a second slab in the morgue was necessary.

And through it all, Bumblebee was only aware of the servo intertwined with his own.

* * *

><p>Elsewhere a tall, golden mech was far too frustrated to feel any sort of grief for the newest scratch in his paint. The celebrations had resulted in a massive traffic jam that had added an entire megacycle in the commute from home to work. He grudgingly dumped his briefcase out of his trunk and transformed to pick it up.<p>

From a first sight it was obvious that this was an unusual mech. Not only did he have a ridiculously outdated vehicle mode that was actually featured in his own museum, but the mech's transformation had revealed that he had four stabilizing servos with one of his wheels on the tip of each. Each limb was vaguely reminiscent of an insect, with the rear servos resembling that of a grasshopper.

He knelt to pick up his briefcase just in time for whoever was next in line to honk at him, to remind him that he was not the only one in need of the transformation lot. Vector Prime grumbled under his breath as he fused his front and rear legs into a single set of limbs that gave him a gait vaguely reminiscent of that of a bipedal goat's, before walking into his office. It was not his fault his transformation sequence was twice as long as that of a modern cybertronian.

"Vector Prime, sir!" came a high pitched voice from his right.

"At ease, Glyph," he rumbled as he set his briefcase down, "status report."

"All systems are unchanged," replied the aquamarine femme, "though the Great War exhibit has received a boost in visitors since the celebrations started."

"Bah! The uncultured fools hadn't even heard of Megatron before this orn!" he spat while Glyph merely stood with a smile, the ancient mech tended to rant on a fairly regular basis, "Spoiled younglings wouldn't know a true Prime if he came up and bit them in the aft!"

"Actually, sir, you might want to take a look at this," said the femme while she turned on the vidscreen, "see anything familiar?"

Vector, for his part, merely squinted at the screen.

"Sir, your visors," pointed out his apprentice.

"Oh, right," he said before reaching into a storage chamber in his chest, pulling out a set of square visors which he placed on his optics, "I see that old friend of yours, Bulkhead was it?"

"Not him, look at the red mech."

"Ah, yes. The famous Optimus Prime!" he chuckled humorlessly, "Could barely stand in-!"

Glyph was treated to a rare sight. The face that her mentor made when he was surprised was as rare as it was comical. His optics grew wide and his mouth was left ajar to the point that half of her expected it to fall off. The half that wasn't laughing anyways.

"Is that- is that the Matrix!?" he shouted, "if this is some sort of joke, Glyph, I'll-!"

"How the Pit am I supposed to fake something like that?" replied the femme, accidentally slipping back to her Moon Base 1 accent, "But that's not all."

She then panned into the small femme on the screen.

"A Minicon!" she cried out in glee, "can you believe it!? I thought they were extinct! She might actually be the last of her kind! Do you know what this could mean Vector? A living fossil right in front of us! The last relic of the Golden-! Vector? Vector are listening to me? Er, sir?"

Glyh had finally noticed that her Mentor was not sharing her excitement. He was merely staring at the tiny femme in silent musing. Or rather, he was staring at her chest.

"Pack up Glyph, we have to trace this… thing stat!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong>

* * *

><p>I don't usually submit two chapters in a single sitting, but the last chapter was a lot shorter than intended and this was originally going to be part of the previous chapter anyways. Besides, I took too long to update the last time anyways.<p>

EDIT: I forgot to mention something about my contest. The references to other fictious worlds may not necessarily be popular culture. For all you know, it may be from an obscure OVA or a single-edition book that I ran into at a store in the middle of China. I have no intention to make this easy.

There might also be references to other fanfics I've read, but I'll be surprised if anyone gets those, so you don't have to bother with those.

I'm also working on a crossover fic between Teen Titans and Black Rock Shooter in case anyone's interested.


	7. Prologue Pt 7

**Prologue PT. 7**

Blue.

That was all that Sari had known since she had awoken. A baby blue sea with a whitewashed tone in which she'd been floating for an indefinite amount of time. Could have been seconds or millennia or any time in between or further, all she knew was the peaceful tone of blue

_Sari._ A voice whispered in her ear. The speaker vanished before she could turn.

_Sari._ The voice said again, and what she assumed to be her head whipped around to catch the speaker.

_"Who's there?"_ she shouted at the wind as she turned desperately. She tried to summon an orb, only to find that she could not transform her hands. Although she was momentarily elated to see she had hands again, she also felt oddly naked without her weapons.

_Sari_.

_ "Where are you!?"_

The voice echoed around her, taunting her with sound. It surrounded her, cornering her into what she guessed was the center of the area.

_"Where am I?" _

_"Where all are one," _said the voice as its owner stepped out of the blue.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she recognized the figure.

_"Prowl?"_

* * *

><p>"What the FRAG do you mean they're gone!?"<p>

"I'm sorry sir, but Optimus Prime and his team left megacycles ago," said the waitress, "Though I'm sure they want their privacy all things considered."

"What do you mean Lightbright?"

"Oh, hey Glyph, been a while. Licky went with one of them to let the Minicon rest," she explained, "she just commed me that she passed away while in stasis. She and the mech were apparently best friends so the poor guy's devastated."

"The Minicon's offline?" asked Glyph with a depressed tone.

"Are they sure it was offline?" pressed Vector.

"Well, she was completely grey so…"

The gold mech pondered the new information for a moment.

"Glyph, let's go. Lightbright, which hospital was the Minicon taken to?"

"Why?"

"We have to get to her before Perceptor does!"

* * *

><p><em>"How are you here?"<em> asked Sari as she looked up from her perch on Prowl's chest.

_"I'm more worried about you being here," _he replied_, "this is the Well of All Sparks. Only those who's sparks have left their shells come here."_

_"_This_ is the Well? What's with the smelter on the way in?" _it wasn't exactly the same thing, but burning one's guests didn't seem like a very heavenly thing to do.

_"That was the Pit," _he replied_, "only pure beings are allowed here. The Pit serves as a cleanser."_

_"Didn't Primus ever hear of rehab?" _she groaned_, "wait, the Well? I'm dead!?"_

_"Well, yes."_

* * *

><p>If Perceptor could still feel, he would be doing a little happy dance at the very moment. A technorganic, modified by the Allspark ready for dissection! The effects of the Allspark on her frame where largely unknown. However, being one of the older Autobots alive had the perk that he had access to information that even the reigning Magnus did not.<p>

He had recognized the technorganic for what she truly was the second he had seen her. Only the last true Prime would be able to recognize her at this point. Although he had little doubt that Vector Prime would arrive eventually, by the time he did Perceptor would have enough information to produce as many Keys as he wanted.

Cybertron would be safe. No matter the cost.

* * *

><p><em>"I can't be dead!" <em>she cried out_, "I was sleeping just a moment ago!"_

_"Sari, we do not have much time," _said Prowl_, "there is much to explain. The first thing you must know-."_

A shudder swept through the Well.

_ "Wh-what's going on?" _groaned Sari when a sudden jolt of pain shot through her chest.

_"Perceptor," _growled Prowl. Whatever elation the two had felt at their unexpected reencounter was lost once Prowl realized the danger that Sari was under.

_"Sari, listen to me. Perceptor is probably dissecting your body. You need to go back soon."_

_"Go back?" _she groaned as the pain speard to her stomach_, "but I'm-."_

_"Offline, technically," _he clarified_, "we do not have much time, so I will make this short."_

* * *

><p>"Out of my way!" yelled Vector after running a truck of the road. The poor worker was left to pick up his cargo as the ancient mech sped by.<p>

"Sir, don't you think we should slow down?" called Glyph, keeping an optic on the Autotroopers behind them.

"No time Glyph. Come on Magnus, you vainglorious fool pick up!"

Vector Prime had been trying to reach Ultra Magnus' office for the last twenty decacycles as he dragged his intern to the hospital.

"Finally!" he cried, "Metroplex General? This is Vector Prime. I need you to comunictate me with Ultra Magnus… Then connect me to whoever CAN connect me to him!... Ah, perfect. Jazz, is it? Are you near the offline minicon?... I know because I know! We don't have much time. Don't let Perceptor anywhere near her!… Autopsy? Are you insane!? Tell that medic of yours to put her back together and nail Perceptor to the wall!… Because she's not offline you blundering hack of a cyber-ninja! Didn't that idiot Yoketron ever tell you about the keys!?… Don't you dare hang-! Hello? Jazz? Jazz! For the love of-! Glyph, your generation is full of idiots!"

* * *

><p>"Of all the stupid jokes," growled Jazz after hanging up what had to be the most distasteful prank call in history.<p>

"Jazz? Is everything all right?" called Alpha Trion. The mech had arrived shortly after the team got the news, having heard of the endearing femme's demise.

"Everythin's fine, sir," he replied, "jus' some idiot with too much time on 'is servos."

"Well, all right then. Just contact me if you receive a call from a mech called Vector Prime or a femme named Glyph."

Jazz's optics widened.

"That was actually him, sir," he said with a hesitant tone.

"Really? What did he say to upset you?"

"Just that Sari was alive," grumbled Jazz, "don't even know how he knew we were here. Crazy old coot."

"You watch your tongue soldier. That mech saved my shell more times than I could keep track of. Other than Prima, Vector may be just about the oldest mech I've ever met but he's never steered me wrong. Now, what did he say?"

"Just something about Sari and her key," he waved, "that mean anything to you sir?"

"Were those his exact words?" asked the ancient chairmech tensely.

"Uh, not exactly," confessed Jazz, "he actually asked me to nail Perceptor to the wall, to have Ratchet undo the autopsy."

Alpha Trion felt a chill.

"Not possible," he said under his breath before speaking up, "did he mention Master Yoketron, by any chance?"

"Well, yeah," said Jazz, surprised at the mention of his old teacher for the second time in as many cycles, "asked me whether he had ever told me about some keys. I figured he meant Sari's key but- Alpha Trion, sir? You feelin' okay?"

Alpha Trion was most certainly not "okay". He opened a compartment from his back and the hilt of a blade folded out.

"Are you armed, soldier?"

"Always," he replied, eyeing the hilt wearily, "what's this all about, sir?"

"Call your team," he stated coldly, "Where is the autopsy room?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong> Once again, early release. Should probably be doing something more productive, but this was really bugging me. Anyways, Otherself is now up while Family and Left Behind are on hiatus until further notice.

One thing I should clear up is that all stories with a [U1] label happened in the same universe. This doesn't mean that they will mean but it does mean that what happens in one may be mentioned in the other. Just figured I should mention that in case I ever felt like popping in a Black Rock Shooter reference.


	8. Prologue Pt 8

**Prologue Pt. 8**

Light-years away, in a rocky planet in the Sol system and in the presence of two soldiers and a windbag , an unusual event was taking place.

Isaac Sumdac was angry.

"This is absolutely outrageous!" snapped the portly scientist, "The Autobots did everything they could to help this city and _this_ is how you intend to repay them!?"

"Repay them!?" snapped the balding man in front of him, "They destroyed well over half the city!"

"You know as well as I do that most of the mess was caused by the Decepticons, Mr. Simmons," he pointed out, "the Autobots never wanted to be here, and Sumdac Systems has already agreed to cover the repairs."

"And why is that, huh?" countered the bureaucrat, "What possible reason could you have to pick up their tab? A little deal under the table?"

"You could call it that," agreed the older scientist, "their technology is all that is keeping my daughter alive."

"Little Sari right?"

Isaac nodded.

"I see, then tell me this," he said, "why hasn't anyone seen her? No press release. No pictures. Nothing that would be expected for the CEO of a mayor company to take advantage of!"

"You want to see a child opened up with _wires_ trailing out?" said Mr. Sumdac with obvious disgust in his voice, secretly relishing the fresh change in Simmons' facial expression, "Are you insane or just depraved? I'm not about to expose my daughter to that kind of thing when she's not even awake!"

"No no no, that's not what I-."

"What has this world come to when the _normal_ thing to do is to turn this kind of tragedy into a media circus!?" cut in the older man, "I am quite frankly appalled and disgusted that you would even suggest such a thing!"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" snapped back Simmons, "This is above her, above me, and above whatever competitive advantage you're selling out this country's integrity for. You think I don't know what's going on? You want to use alien technology in your next batch of robots! You are selling out your own _species_ to pig out on the profits!"

"_IF_ the Autobots choose to enrich our own knowledge of servo mechanics with their own biology, I will in no way complain," he admitted, "but so far such an agreement has not been reached. I am _picking up their tab_, as you put it, because I owe them my life. They saved my daughter, Mr. Simmons, and I would gladly build this city by hand for them."

"They nearly killed your daughter!"

"They protected her when I couldn't trust a single human being!" snapped portly man, "I trusted machines because _you_ did nothing when Porter took away her only home!"

"We had no choice! ALL of her files went missing when _she_ did!"

"What matters is that they were there for her when I couldn't," snapped Isaac back, "when your people should have put her in a safe home, the stranded alien robots had to step in and do your job for you!"

"So that's it then!" declared agent Simmons triumphantly, "you don't think that humans should be the rulers of this planet!"

The look that Isaac gave Simmons was enough to get even the stoic soldiers that had accompanied him to snicker and could be best described as "are you out of your firetrucking mind?" or "did you chew on lead as a child?"

"Oh I'm too old for this," groaned the scientist as he simultaneously pushed a button and rubbed his temples with his right hand.

Agent Simmons was about to ask what the button did when the CEO's desk suddenly split itself in half to reveal six rotating barrels.

* * *

><p>Josie Beller was growing increasingly frustrated. No matter what she did, tried, begged, or prayed (she even made a tiny effigy of a cute, little robot) the nanobots lost power before they could really move.<p>

"How the hell does Sumdac have them keep a charge?" she growled to herself, "I've tried every alloy and compound that I could think of and yet ten seconds is the best I can do!?"

She knew it was good progress to have them swim for ten seconds when they couldn't even wiggle when she arrived two years ago, but it was still frustrating.

"Any luck?" asked a fellow scientist, Jose Esquivel, as he twirled his moustache, "we haven't had a breakthrough in months!"

"Tell me about it," groaned a nearby intern, Joshua, "you'd think they'd at least pay me to stare at a motionless, microscopic gear all day."

"Motionless?" said Josie.

"Yeah?"

"Did you remember to turn on the current?"

"… Huh?"

"The current, boy!" groaned Jose, "It can't move if you don't turn it on! Did you even read the manual?"

"It's six hundred pages!"

"That you were supposed to read!"

Beller tuned out the quarreling men. She understood, of course, being only a few years older than Joshua. The manuals for the machines they used to test the nanocircuitry were certainly tedious, but necessary to know how to use them without frying the experiments with the electromagnetic fields.

Wait.

"Fields!" shouted Josie, startling the two men out of their quarrel and calling the attention of the rest of the team, "Fields, Jose! Fields!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Fields!" she cheered again as the slightly hyperactive scientist rushed to the main computer, "Like- like a tesla coil! You know how they shoot artificial lightning? A little tweaking to control the amperage and voltage could be used to create an electromagnetic field that can power and control the nanobots!"

"Well, maybe," admitted Jose, "but that would require a massive expense of power."

"We can test it first and tune it later!" snapped Beller back, "Just help me get a simulation running!"

And so, after years of research, the Blackrock engineering team finally crossed a hurdle that Isaac had overcome after ten minutes whilst thinking about the unusual fields that his daughter emitted.

* * *

><p>"Has anyone ever told you that you're a despicable human being?" asked Agent Simmons while he shoved another spoonful of yogurt ice cream into his mouth, mildly noting the dripping nozzles on the six barreled monstrosity that Isaac kept in his desk.<p>

"Why does everyone say that after seeing my ice cream machine?" wondered Professor Sumdac as he enjoyed his chocolate ice cream.

"That's the most misleading ice cream machine I've seen in my life!"

"I thought it'd be convenient to have many flavors in it," continued the scientist in defense of his precious machine, "it was one of my first inventions. I actually considered opening an ice cream parlor when I was young."

"Really?" said the government employee, "You make a robot minigun and the first thing you think of is putting ice cream in it?"

"Everyone loves ice cream. War? Not so much."

The two soldiers that had escorted Agent Simmons had barely recovered from being aimed at with a fairly good impersonation of a minigun that apparently shot different flavors of ice cream from each of its nozzles. William Lennox had thought that Isaac was a fairly sensible guy up until then. He didn't flaunt his wealth and his only real eccentricity so far had been living in a tower that was protected by a force field. This, however, settled it.

Rich people are crazy.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>Okay, long wait, sorry. This is mostly a bit of crack to lighten things up while I work the kinks out of the next chapter. It's already finished so I'm just proof reading.

Anyways, sorry for the wait. I had planned on finishing this earlier but I noticed that I had made a massive mistake earlier and I've been trying to fix it. Namely, I made Sari's body impossible. If her cyclers worked like I said they did, her lungs cells would die out from constant exposure to the energon emissions. Furthermore, I accidentally added a trait that I wanted her to have later on in the story (not the shield, though i lost it when I saw that Iacon relic). I'll have to go back later to fix it, but until then I hope that you enjoyed this chapter.


	9. Prologue Pt 9

**Prologue Pt. 9**

* * *

><p>The team was driving away from the hospital to the press conference that had been forced upon them by the Guard, who wanted to control the flow of information before speculation took over. The full team, minus Ratchet, Perceptor, and Ultra Magnus, was speeding through traffic when Optimus got the strangest comlink he would get for at least four years.<p>

"Jazz, I don't think that's a good idea," said Optimus, "the last thing we need is to see Sari torn to pieces two clicks after she went offline."

"I hear that," agreed Jazz, "but those are Alpha's orders. As much as we want to, we can't just bail on them."

"Have you spoken with Ratchet yet?"

"Sorry OP, been stuck here with Trion," replied the beatnik, "he's pretty fragged with Perceptor right now."

"Why's that?"

"Wish I knew."

"Well, keep an eye on him. I'll see if I can contact Ratchet."

"Will do. Jazz, out."

The comlink clicked off and he switched to Ratchet's comlink, making sure to patch him to the others.

"What is it, Prime?" asked Ratchet through the comlink.

"Alpha Trion wants us at the morgue," said Prime, "apparently there was some sort of breakthrough with Sari's shell and we are all needed."

"That's ridiculous," scoffed the veteran, "you left, what? A megacycle ago? Even Perceptor would have a hard time getting past Sari's scaled armor in such short time. The pieces are too small to be removed in a single plate without destroying them and Perceptor is far too meticulous to rush that kind of job."

"You know, she was chatting with us ten megacycles ago," said Bumblebee bitterly, "you don't have to talk about her like a science experiment."

"You deal your way and I have my ways," snapped Ratchet, "I've lost more friends and comrades than I care to count."

"So it gets easier?" asked Bulkhead from the right.

"You deal with it," replied the old mech, "and after a few orns you can go a couple of megacycles without thinking about them. I can only hope I won't live long enough to let it get easy."

The team was silent for a moment, brooding on Ratchet's words. Excluding Optimus, few of them could honestly say that they had ever thought about what Ratchet had been through in the Great War. Two years and the younger bots though they had seen the worst that a sentient being could do. They had forgotten that Ratchet had lived much longer than anyone there.

"Screw this," growled Bumblebee before he launched himself across four lanes and into the lane that led back to the hospital, leaving tire marks across the highway, "you mechs coming?"

Lickety-Split dutifully followed the same way after a second as did the rest of the team. Once they found a U-turn, that is.

* * *

><p>"Interesting," said Perceptor, "energon ion blades."<p>

The mech had stripped Sari's chest armor to access the empty spark chamber. He then plugged in energon lines and connected her neural links to a control computer and propped her up by the neck on a small stand. He had thought that he'd have to open her skull to access her processor but had been pleasantly surprised to discover that her antennae doubled as data ports by opening them lengthwise. He'd then used a simple operation to remove the energon bypasses Ratchet had installed to block out the more interesting upgrades.

"A personal transwarp storage dimension," he noticed, "dual skyboom shields, multiple visors for different light spectrum analysis, ion blades modified for locomotion, jump jets, short range flight capabilities, subdividing servos, built in diagnostics tools, instant scanning, and a built-in primary weapon. Four decacycles after starting the operation, the shell designated as Sari Sumdac is now ready for an extraction of the main transformation cog."

He removed a few scales under the chest plating and pulled the T-Cog out of its casing to scan it. He blinked and scanned it again.

"Not possible," yet the evidence was right in front of him.

He had thought that some of these designs looked familiar, but it defied all reason. Perceptor had personally overseen their destruction.

Now he had to make a choice.

It would be risky if anyone else found the technoorganic for various reasons. Apart from the fact that it was disproportionately powerful, it couldn't be known that he had ever tampered with this kind of technology. He was already neck strut deep in used oil from the recent discovery of the inner workings of the Magnus Hammer since the fools at the Council could not understand the necessity of such technology. They were still tied down by prioritizing emotional health over logical conclusions, an error he would correct if the limitations set by his former self would not prohibit them. He did not understand these limitations, which was odd since he could remember having understood them in the past.

Either way, a simple fact was obvious.

The technoorganic must be destroyed.

He would have considered simply disposing of her through the incinerator, but it would be an unnecessary effort that would only serve to anger the mech that would most likely become the next Magnus.

No, the technoorganic would be buried soon anyways. No sense in dropping a gifted cube.

Then, of course, something had to ruin his plans.

"Perceptor!"

Or rather somebot.

* * *

><p>"There we go, try it now sir," said First Aid.<p>

Ultra Magnus flexed his new arm, cringing at the parts where the new servos caught momentarily.

"Try not to move it too much yet and do NOT use your personal mods until the next Orn," warned the young surgeon as he welded the armor back on, "give it some time for the servos to smooth out and the energon to flow. Your CNA and your repair systems should adapt the new arm to your frame in no time."

"Needs some breaking in," he admitted, "but excellent job First Aid."

"Thank you, sir. Now about your stabilizing servos… they were a bit trickier since we had to replace half the nanoservos but you should be walking by the time Moon Base 2 rises."

"Excellent," said the older mech as he wheeled himself to the door, "are you certain you don't want to reconsider my offer to put you in a field team?"

"Oh no no no," stuttered First Aid as the door slid open, "That's a bit more excitement than- Doctor Ratchet? Is something wrong?"

The aforementioned mech had just stormed past the open door, grumbling under his vents. The grumbling was fairly normal and few could remember a single decacycle in which he didn't grumble. Storming, however, should have been a bit trickier for a mech that allegedly had worn gears in his knees and ankles.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just some idiot beating a dead 'con," he grumbled, "Ultra Magnus, you wouldn't happen to know anything about Keys, would you?"

"Keys? Did you lock yourself out of your home?"

"Of course not! I use a code pad!" snapped Ratchet, "Jazz was going on that Perceptor locked himself into the autopsy room with Sari's shell and the key. Said she was still alive."

Ultra Magnus started. Coincidence? No, Perceptor is far too logical to react this way to a simple medical error. Something else is afoot.

"Where is the autopsy room?" asked the larger mech, "I need to see this for myself."

* * *

><p>"Open this door right now, Perceptor!" yelled Alpha Trion as he hit the door with his sword again, "Why are these doors so hard to open!?"<p>

"Ever hear of part theft?" asked Ratchet as he rounded the corner, "Now what is this all about?"

"Ratchet! Do you have access to this door?" asked Alpha Trion.

"Of course I do, I'm a doctor," snapped the old mech.

"Good, now open-."

"No," interrupted Ratchet, "a good friend of mine is in there, opened, and probably dissected. I have no desire of remembering Sari like that."

"Ultra Magnus!" snapped a new voice as Vector Prime stormed in on his bipedal mode with his intern following closely, "I knew you were behind this you pumped up, overmoded, junkyard scrap!"

"Sir, that's the reigning Magnus!" squeaked Glyph, "He controls our funding!"

"I don't care if he's Unicrons right claw!" snapped Vector, "Where did you two fraggers hide the minicon!?"

"She's in autopsy," said Ratchet, "Perceptor is-."

"Perceptor!?" yelled Vector as he switched back to his tetrapod mode, "You left her in there with HIM!?"

"Yes, we need to find out what-." Ratchet was interrupted by the clanging of metal parts shifting away from Vector's back to reveal a set of two massive, hexagonally tipped, shoulder mounted positron cannons.

"MOVE!" he shouted as the massive blasters hummed to life and he aligned his four pedes into firing position.

The crowd wisely obeyed.

* * *

><p>Bumblebee and Lickety-Split were less than a click away when they first noticed the smoke coming from the hospital. Despite not being fully , Bumblebee fired his boosters, rapidly reaching top speed.<p>

"WAIT!" Cried a voice into his comlink. He tilted his rearview and noticed he had left Lickety-Split behind.

He simultaneously hit the brakes and reversed the boosters to let her catch up before opening his trunk.

"Transform your arms out and grab onto my aft!"

"WHAT!?" Cried the young femme, scandalized.

"JUST DO IT!"

Split hastily transformed her arms out over her front wheels and grabbed onto Bumblebee's seats.

"HOLD ON TIGHT!"

He fired the boosters back up and towed the screaming femme at top speed.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>

Woo! This came out faster than I expected. I'm hoping to become an editor so I'm really meticulous with spelling and the like, so I expected to take longer.

Anyways, I have decided to give Sari a romantic interest later on and I wanted to hear the reader's opinions on what traits would make a good mate for her. I'm not guaranteeing I'll use all of them since I do have a rough idea, but I'd like some feedback nevertheless. Gender, personality, species, everything is up for discussion! Just tell me what you think Sari's soulmate would be like. I look forward to reading your opinions.


	10. Prologue Pt 10

**Prologue Pt. 10**

Bumblebee was… confused. In less than twenty decacycles his life had been turned around, spun, left upside down, dropkicked into a garbage chute, and crushed and stretched into a ten year old girl's piñata, ready to be beaten some more.

And it wasn't even lunchtime yet.

He and Lickety-Split had arrived at the hospital, only to be shaken off their pedes by a massive wave of bots escaping the hospital. A passing doctor mentioned something about the morgue being somewhere in that general direction and the two had transformed down to get there as fast as possible, much to the chagrin of the janitorial staff that would have to clean the tire marks.

He nearly snapped his doors off when he saw a massive, four legged mech with a set of smoking barrels jutting from his back and over his shoulders aimed at a crater in the wall.

"What the Pit happened here?" asked Lickety from behind him.

The large mech simply raised the cannons upwards and telescoped them to a third of their original length, fitting them into a set of groves on his back that made them look like a pair of tanks.

"Still got it," he muttered as he shifted to his bipedal mode, "Glyph, you online?"

"WHAT!?" shouted a femme with an altmode similar to Bumblebee's, though it may have been an orn newer or so. She was snapping her servoes around her audio receptors to test her newly impaired hearing.

"Good, now-."

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR PIT-SPAWNED MIND!?" Shouted Ratchet's familiar voice as he shook ruble off himself, "Are you _trying_ to kill us!?"

"Oh don't be so dramatic, kid," snapped Vector, "it was the lowest blast setting."

"WHAT!?"

"The lowest setting!? Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"

"WHAT!?"

"I happen to know how to use these in a perfectly safe manner!"

"WHAT!?"

"Is that thing even legal!?"

"WHA-!?"

"Oh for Pit's sake, come here!"

The medic wrestled the small femme into a choke hold and began to dismantle her audio receptors.

"WHA- OWOWOWOWOWOWOW!"

"Stop squirming!" he snapped as he fired a set of narrow lasers into the mike canal, "I need to replace the piezoelectric conductors. Are you happy now? You left your intern deaf!"

"Ah, she'll be fine!"

"That's not the point!" snapped Ratchet as he popped in the new part, a habit he'd gotten into thanks to Bumblebee's music.

"What the frag is going on here!?" cried out the aforementioned bot, "I though you said Sari-!"

"You've been spreading that sludge around!?" yelled Ratchet as he slammed Glyph's audio shut, ignoring her cries of protest, and began working on the other one, "Bring the youngbot's hopes up by telling them the kid's alive!?"

"If I know Perceptor, then this was no accident," snapped Vector, "come with me and you'll see."

"I hope that you are aware that it's illegal to carry weapons in public buildings," said Ultra Magnus once Jazz and Alpha Trion finally managed to right him up.

"You can arrest me later, just let me get my cellmate," grumbled the older mech back as he walked over the metallic rubble, "Perceptor! Scalpel down, now!"

"You are interrupting my work, Vector Prime," stated Perceptor as he came into view, "I may have to take defensive measures if my safety is threatened."

Everybot stopped when they noticed Perceptor over a morgue gurney in a blue, transparent dome with his shoulder cannon aimed at Vector Prime.

"Put the minicon back together Perceptor," he growled, "or _I'll_ have to take offensive measures."

"The autopsy is not yet complete," he stated, "I have only managed to remove the primary chest plating and her weapons."

"We both know what she is Percy," snarled Vector, "don't make me hurt you."

"It's over Perceptor!" yelled Alpha Trion as he stumbled over the remains of the door with a standard issue pistol trained on the smaller mech, "put the Key's Guardian down."

Perceptor looked almost, but not quite, surprised at Alpha Trion's statement. He had known it was a Key Guardian, what he hadn't know was that Alpha Trion knew about them as well.

The photovolt was out of the burrow it seemed. "As you can see, the technoorganic is offline. It would be meaningless to attempt a resurrection at this point."

"Guardians have free reign of the Well," noted Alpha Trion, "especially the Guardian of the Second Key."

"Keys?" asked Bumblebee, "like Sari's key?"

"Of course not," snorted Ratchet, "you mean the Key to the Vector Sigma Module and the Key to the Well of All Sparks, right?"

"Both of which were destroyed during the war," said Ultra Magnus, "you speak of the impossible Vector."

"The Allspark was on the child's homeplanet," noted Alpha Trion, "it is not unthinkable for either of the Keys to have been recreated."

"But it does not explain how the technoorganic would be a Guardian," said Perceptor.

"She's not," snorted Vector, "she's a Key."

"That is not possible," replied the scientist replied after a momentary stunned silence.

"I can't prove it without the Matrix," admitted the Prime, "but you can't tell me that you don't recognize the symbol on her chest."

He noticed that Perceptor looked almost, but not quite, surprised at the new revelation.

"The Matrix?" asked Bumbleebee, "what do you need it for?"

"Exposure to the Matrix of Leadership would force her back into her shell," explained Alpha, "otherwise she could stay like this for Orns. Which reminds me…" he turned back to Ultra Magnus, "Ultra, the Hammer if you don't mind."

"Ultra Magnus, I would not advise-."

"Take that shield down and reassemble the technoorganic, Perceptor," interrupted the reigning Magnus as he handed over his signature weapon, "that is an order."

"As you wish," replied the monotone mech as he dissolved the shield and put the field generators back into Sari's hands.

He turned and began work on painstakingly reassembling the tiny femme, pocketing the t-cog into a chamber in his pocket.

"Let me see," said Ratchet as he ambled forward, "if you're right, then I better make sure everything's in the right place."

The veteran medic used his electromagnets to maneuver the small pieces quickly and precisely.

"Hold up," he snapped, looking around, "where's the t-cog?"

"The what?" asked Lickety Split.

"The part that allows us to transform," responded Glyph, "without it she'll get stuck in robot mode."

"Ultra Magnus," said Perceptor, "I have sent you a data package."

He watched the mech stiffen in response of the new information.

"You assured me that it had been destroyed."

"It appears that I was mistaken," admitted the other mech as everybot else looked on with bemused expressions on their faceplates.

"I see," said Ultra Magnus, "give Ratchet the T-cog."

Perceptor tried and failed to process the Magnus' words.

"Excuse me?"

"Give Ratchet the technoorganic's t-cog."

"You must not be aware of the implications of your order," said the red mech, "the only other mech to work on the project besides me-."

"I know," stated Ultra coldly, "but we don't have the right to refuse her of a basic ability simply because of our errors. Hand over the part."

Perceptor seemed to hesitate for a second before opening a storage compartment on his left leg and extracting the unusual t-cog.

Ratchet gingerly took the part, scanned it to ensure it was Sari's, and inserted it back into its housing before sealing the girl's chest plates back on.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Now we need the Matrix," said Vector, "but since we don't have it-."

"Actually, we do," said Alpha as he held the head of the Magnus Hammer over Sari's shell.

"What are you-?" the head started glowing, "No. You did NOT!"

"Calm yourself Vector," said Ultra Magnus, "Perceptor acted without authorization from the council."

Vector rounded on Perceptor.

"It was a necessary measure-."

"I'll show you a necessary measure!" snapped the older mech as he deployed his cannons.

"Vector Prime I know you are upset," snapped Ultra, "however, it will not be possible to excuse such an action. Lower your weapons. Now."

Vector grudgingly complied before glaring at Perceptor before pinning him against the wall with his front legs.

"You wasted a thousand Vorns of my time when you sent me off to search for the Matrix after Logos died," he growled, "time I spent fighting only rust and scraplets, time in which those I held closest to my spark were slaughtered and tortured, while I was not there to help. I _will_ collect, Perceptor. You can count on that."

"Vector! We need you to activate the Matrix!" called Alpha Trion.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" snarled the mech as he strolled over to the freshly reassembled femme, "you don't need me, just put the Matrix over the minicon!"

"Yes, but we need to get it out of the hammer first!" snapped Ratchet.

"Oh, give me that," replied the older mech as he snatched the scepter of the reigning Magnus…

And snapped the handle clean off. He continued with the head, breaking off pieces until only its power source remained.

"Piece of scrap," he growled as he discarded the remains of the hammer, ignoring the shocked faceplates of his companions, "you were foolish to try to recreate the Forge, Perceptor. This hunk of junk doesn't even a quarter of the Forge's power."

"What the frag was that for!?" yelled Ratchet as he picked up the remains of the artifact.

"When you use the Matrix, it's best to use it properly," he replied as he held the artifact by its handles.

The Matrix of Leadership opened to douse the technoorganic in a soft blue light.

* * *

><p><em>"Do you understand?" asked Prowl.<em>

_Sari could only shudder in response._

_"I should have known this wasn't over."_

_"None of us could have known," noted the cyclebot, "but this time we'll be ready. The _Earth_ will be ready."_

_"And I have to do the prep work," said Sari, "but why me? Why not the rest of the bots?"_

_"I fear fate may draw them away from you," he responded, "but you won't be alone."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"That is more that I can say I'm afraid."_

_The Well shook._

_"It seems our time is up," growled the ninja, "Sari, when you awaken, make sure to find a mech called Vector Prime. Show him your key and make sure you two are alone."_

_"My key? But its'-."_

_"Trust me."_

_Another quake shook the Well._

_"Wait, Prowl," said Sari as Prowl faded out of view, "is this real? Or am I dreaming?"_

_"Well you are most certainly dreaming," confessed the mech, "but why would that mean this is not real?"_

_The light surged._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Faster than I expected. As always, tell me what you think.


	11. Prologue Pt 11

**Prologue Pt. 11**

Sari awoke to Ratchet's face and the sound of her own roaring turbines before her sound dampeners kicked in.

The medic's mouth was moving, but she couldn't quite hear him. She could _feel _Optimus and the others approaching and many mechs and femmes that she knew and others she didn't.

Ratchet dismantled part of her head, tweaked with it, and suddenly she could hear all too well.

She tried to curl up into a ball as a barrage of sounds and frequencies assaulted her mind.

"DON'T MOVE KIDDO," said Ratchet's thunderous whisper as he restrained her with his magnets, "JUST A… There!"

The assault stopped.

Sari tried once more to sit up, only to be rushed away by Ratchet and a medibot she didn't know.

"Wait, Sari!" cried Bumblebee as they charged past with her.

"Get out of the way!" said Ratchet as they rushed up a flight of stairs, "First Aid! Status report!"

"All scans nominal," replied the new mech as he hit her with a blue beam, "minor scratching on her t-cog casing, spark is gaining strength but she seems to be in the middle of her flare."

"She was dismantled! There's no slagging way that's possible!" snapped the older medic as he deposited his charge onto a larger scanner in a new room, "Don't move!"

The technorganic complied as she had no desire of bearing the wrath of her self-appointed doctor.

"Huh, well what do you know? Guess I owe you an- hold it!"

Ratchet moved the scanner to focus on her back.

"Something's loose here," he muttered, "looks like an electronic paint chip."

"That explains things," said Vector as he came into the room, "she'd normally keep her color settings while she traverses the Well."

"How did it get loose?" asked Sari, "And can I stand yet?"

"NO!" snapped Ratchet, "Not until I discharge you!"

"It was probably when the Magnus Hammer threw her against the wall," said Bulkhead at the door.

"SARI!" cried Bumblebee, "Bulk, would you get your wide load out of the way!?"

"Oh, sorry."

"That's my name, don't wear it." Giggled Sari.

"You seem fine for an offline bot," said Optimus as he too made an appearance, "now will someone _please_ tell me what's going on?"

* * *

><p>By the time the story was over, Optimus Prime could feel his jaw unhinging. He wasn't the only one, if the way that the rest of his team was massaging their faces was anything to go by.<p>

The group had moved to an unused conference hall that was built for the medical school that the hospital was attached to.

"So Sari can die whenever she wants?" asked Bulkhead, "Like a terracon?"

"Of course not!" snapped Vector, "terracons are dead come back to life! The Guardian of the Well has the ability to go back and forth. Though it's not something we can do often."

"We?" asked Arcee.

"Yep, I was the Guardian of the First Key. Though I failed at my mission and it was destroyed in battle."

"How did you know Sari was a Guardian?" asked Ultra Magnus.

"Isn't it obvious?" he snapped while he pointed at his chest.

The group raised an optic ridge in confusion.

"This doesn't remind you of anything?" he asked slowly as he pointed at Sari's chest, who blushed and moved to the side with a scowl.

More confused looks.

"Oh, for Prima's sake!" he snapped and took the Matrix of Leadership out of the storage compartment on his belly, "SEE!?"

He put it on the table and pointed at his and Sari's chests.

The group looked back and forth between the three while Wheeljack tried to keep his servo from slapping against his face (he failed) at their failure to identify the obvious. Oddly enough, Bumblebee was the first one to figure it out.

"The Matix!" he said, "Sari has the Matrix on her chest!"

The rest of the group blinked in surprise. He was right.

"Finally!" scoffed Vector, "Yes, all Guardians can be identified by the symbol of the Matrix on their chests."

"Why the Matrix?" asked Sari.

"Because we have two duties," he replied, "the first is to guard the Keys to Vector Sigma and to the Well of All Sparks. The thing is, being the Guardian of the Second Key means carrying it inside your body by merging with it. The Guardian of the Second Key is practically the key itself."

"How come?" asked Bulkhead.

"The First Key is physical," he explained, "but the second one is made of pure energy. Once it is absorbed, it can only be released when the current guardian dies or proves to be unworthy of the duty. However, this union also gives the Guardian the ability to travel to the Well of All Sparks, which brings us to her final duty."

He picked up the Matrix and laid it down in front of Sari, lining up the internal crystal with the jewel in her chest. In response, the jewel glowed for a second before shooting out a blue beam into the artifact. The Matrix itself began glowing and broke apart much like Sari's key used to, shifting as it shrank down until it was slightly smaller than the symbol on her chest.

"The Matrix chooses the Prime by listening to the voices of the sparks of all cybertronians, figuring out the leader that they need and finding him or her," he explained, "the best way to do this, is by staying in close proximity of the one that guards the gate of the Well."

Sari looked up sharply. "You don't mean…"

"Sari Sumdac is it?"

She nodded as the Matrix floated upwards. The orb on Sari's chest slid upwards while the trapezoid shaped slabs next to it slid sideways to reveal the chamber that would receive it.

"It is now your duty as the Key to the Well of All Sparks, to find the rightful ruler of Cybertron."

The Matrix entered, and Sari's chest snapped shut.

* * *

><p>"You know," said Bumblebee, "thinking back on it, the Magnus Hammer reacted to <em>Sari<em>, not you boss-bot."

"Yeah, I was just thinking about that," responded Optimus.

The group had left the hospital by request of Red Alert, leaving Ratchet and Arcee behind. Ratchet was needed to help dig Rodimus Prime out of the massive rust statue he'd become and Arcee had become oddly attached to Ratchet, refusing to leave his side if she could help it.

Optimus suspected that she simply needed to see somebot from her old days, even if she didn't know him all that well.

Sari was of the opinion that they were sitting in a tree, K-I-S… S? How'd that song go again?

Anyhow, they had departed to Vector's place because his was the biggest one and wasn't too far away. Bumblebee wasn't even sure Bulkhead would fit through the door of _his_ apartment. Ultra Magnus, Perceptor, and Alpha Trion had chosen not to join them, favoring instead to return to the Autobot Council to report Sari's new status as a High Priority individual.

It was a confidential meeting that Sentinel Prime would _not_ be invited to.

"She was pretty quiet the whole way here," said Bumblebee out of the blue, "I mean, she doesn't look it, but I'm pretty sure her processor is frying over this whole mess."

The smallest member of the group appeared to be dealing fairly well with her new responsibility and was currently answering the questions of Vector's gushing assistant, Glyph, while the aforementioned femme amicably chatted with Bulkhead as they were apparently old friends.

"Look," he said, "wait for it."

Bulkhead and Glyph turned away from Sari for a second. She kept smiling but she eventually looked down at her chest plates and drummed her fingers over the glass orb.

"See, what'd I tell you?"

"I'm impressed," admitted Optimus, "you learned how to read her pretty well."

"Sari usually wears her spark on her gauntlets," he admitted, "but when she wants to hide something, good luck getting it out."

"Should I be jealous?" asked Lickety-Split as she strolled over with a tray with three glasses of coolant, her waitress programming having kicked in, "You seem pretty chummy with her. Ex-femmefriend?"

"Sari? Nah. She's like a sister to me," replied Bumblebee as he took a sip of coolant, "besides, we're not even the same species. How would that even work?"

"You told her?" asked Optimus.

"Sari transforms when she's in recharge," he explained before turning back to his (cute) new friend whose aft he did not stare at, not at all, "anyways, there´s too much difference between us. She's practically a newborn, fits in the palm of my servo, and I've known her since she was little… well, little-er. It'd be weird."

"Plus, if you two tried to frag she'd probably fall into your spark chamber and kill you both," noted Lick, causing Optimus to spit out his coolant in shock, "it'd be like bonding with an insecticon."

"Are you always this… blunt?" asked Optimus.

"Yep!" she cheerfully replied.

"Hey, where'd Sari go?" noted Bumblebee.

"She said she needed to change out her oil," replied Glyph, "do minicons use a different type of oil filtration system? I always figured their filters evaporated their oil after it wore out like ours do."

"Sari produces her own oil through her organic half," replied Optimus, "but she _can_ drink regular oil too."

Glyphs' mouth fell open.

"Um, boss bot?" said Bumblebee, "Splits was the only one who knew."

Optimus Prime rubbed his temples as Glyph launched into yet another questions tirade.

* * *

><p>Vector Prime was having a hard time closing his vocal processor. The small femme had so far done three things to shock him in the same orn. The first was to show up as a new Key Guardian, the second was to ask him for a private moment and reveal herself as a technorganic, and now this…<p>

"Where did you get this?" he asked, awed by the presence of the object she showed him.

"The Allspark gave it to me," she explained as she handed him her key, "it used to hold the energy that upgraded me to my current form."

"I never thought I'd see it again," he whispered.

"It's the key to Vector Sigma, isn't it?"

"Yes," he replied, "but it seems that I can no longer power it."

"No one can," said Sari, "I drained it when I upgraded myself."

"You can't drain it," said Vector, "the Key held the power that was always meant to be yours, but it seems that you must also guard the Key to the Vector Sigma module for the time being."

"I got a lot on my plate all of a sudden," she moaned.

"Yes, I suppose you do. We should actually go to the module later. There is someone there you should meet."

"Can we go in 24 megacycles or so?" asked Sari with a yawn, "I got a major case of jet lag."

"Certainly, I wouldn't want to keep you from enjoying your time here."

The two began to walk back from the study to the lobby with Sari on his shoulder in her organic mode.

"Any touristy things I should see?"

"Apart from the museum?" he asked with a chuckle, "well, there are always the Crystal Gardens of Praxus and Iacon and the Rust Sea Memorial."

"There are seas here?"

* * *

><p>"Explain yourself, Perceptor," ordered Ultra Magnus, "we were told that the prototypes had been destroyed."<p>

"They were," stated the red mech to the small portion of the council, "the technorganic is not one of the original protoforms."

"What is this… Project Pretender about?" asked Wheeljack after skimming over the datapad.

"An attempt to create a transformer with the ability to take the form of anything he came across," responded Alpha Trion, "even organics or inanimate objects if need be."

"The project was scrapped after it was found that even though the advanced processor was able to store many different scans it was impossible to incorporate all of them," said Perceptor, "the amount of energy necessary to install all of the upgrades was prohibitive. Which brings me to my primary point."

A display of the scans he'd gotten from Sari's equipment was displayed next to design specs of every cybertronian that had been known to have interacted with her and a full body in-depth scan.

"When I examined Sari Sumdac's body, I noticed that several of her parts appeared to be Minicon technology that is not included in my original design."

"Well, we already know the kid's powerful," said Wheeljack.

"This is the design of a cybertronian optic," he stated as the screen above him displayed a metal sphere covered by a transparent plate, ignoring Wheeljack's comment. The sphere had a hole in the middle of it with a white light emanating from within.

"Her internal optics," he stated as the sphere became superimposed, "are able to process a broader spectrum of visible light and include the passive scanner in my designs as well as a high velocity processing speed. Her optical shells are also vastly different from that of an Autobot's. "

"How exactly?" asked Alpha Trion.

"This is a detail of an Autobot's optic shell magnified 500x compared to that of a Decepticon seeker's at the same magnification," he stated as the screen displayed a pattern made up of several small hexagons next to a second hexagonal pattern made up of polygons that were approximately half the original's size, "and this is a detail of Miss Sumdac's optic shell, magnified 2,000x," the display now showed a pattern made up of thousands of diminutive triangles stacked neatly against each other, "Seekers are well known for their highly detailed optic shells and a high speed optical focus, but as you can see, the detail of her optics is far superior to those of most seekers."

"She was upgraded by the Allspark," noted Alpha Trion, "who knows what it could have done to her?"

"There is also the issue of what I found in her memory files," replied Perceptor, "Miss Sumdac's unusual processor contains detailed files on the personal modifications of all Autobots and Decepticons that she encountered."

The screen above him lit up with designs for Optimus' ax and grappling hooks, Bumblebee's stingers , Bulkhead's upper-body servo-mechanics and processor, Ratchet's medical equipment, Prowl's hacking mod, Blurr's legs and wheels, Sentinel's shield and lance, Ultra Magnus's hammer and shoulder missiles, Wheeljack's barrage cannon, Lugnut's P.O.K.E. and machine guns, Blitzwing's t-cog and cannons, Lockdown's adaptive armor, Swindle's force field and transwarp storage compartment, Blackarachnia's claws and web shooters, and even Megatron's fusion cannon.

"Furthermore, I have concluded that her upgraded weapons are a combination of several modifications," continued the red mech as her weapon schematics appeared on the screen, "her blades, for example, are a combination of Optimus Prime's axe, Ratchet's electromagnets, and Bumblebee's stingers."

"Wait, how would that even work?" asked Alpha Trion as the blades broke apart to display the components of each scanned tool.

"Well, the only things separating that axe from those blades is a strong electromagnetic flux field and a high voltage power source," pointed out Wheeljack, "we tried something similar a while back but we couldn't get the thing to work properly without frying our circuits."

"Most of her upgrades appear to use this technology," continued Perceptor as the shields and skates were highlighted, "once the blades where installed, she needed only to modify the flux field to design the skates," the skates were superimposed as their components where broken down with arrows highlighting the direction of the ions, they then where replaced by her shields, "her shields are equally intriguing. A similar concept to her blades, but based on Sentinel Prime's shield rather that Optimus Prime's ax."

"So, you're saying that she has a download ability?" asked Ultra Magnus, recalling Elita-1's power.

"No," stated Perceptor, "she has been scanning all cybertronians that she encounters."

The group stared as a holographic diagram of her body emerged from the floor and parts of her components where outlined.

"She has been watching us."

Her arms and legs where outlined and compared to Bulkhead's arms and Blurr's legs.

"Assessing our weaknesses."

Holographic Bulkhead's wrecking ball was removed and the whole design was streamlined to fit the holographic Sari's arm, the same thing then happened to Blurr's wheels and legs.

"And, with the help of the Allspark, making improvements as she saw fit. When the technorganic upgraded herself with the Allspark's energy, she allowed it to access the information she had gathered to upgrade her own body. In truth, she was designed with a single weapon."

"Her orbs," proposed Wheeljack, "Optimus said that was the first weapon she ever used."

"Precisely," he confirmed, "she has been merely scanning and analyzing each cybertronian that she has come across instinctively."

"But why would she need such an ability?" pondered Botanica.

"That is part of the Pretender Project that we could not solve" stated Perceptor, "ordinarily, the installation of such an ability would be ill advised as this would use up memory space within a few orns as it happened with the prototypes. However, her processor is possibly the most impressive piece of machinery that I have ever come across," the screen then proceeded to blink out to display a rounded processor, a smaller display showed a detail of her neural network, "as you can see, when she imprinted off Isaac Sumdac, her processor took the shape of a human's brain. Each nano-chip mimicked the appearance and function of a neuron, functioning as millions of processor's working in a synchronized manner. The superior materials from our processors combined with the efficient organic designs resulted in her superior processor. This design also enables her to run on very little energon and offers the option of organic fuel."

"How did you come to this conclusion?" asked Botanica.

"I cross-referenced the designs of Sari Sumdac's processor with the terabytes of human anatomical information that she brought with her," he stated as he brought out dozens of graphene hard drives, "The information has been very useful."

"You used an In-Depth Scanner?" asked Botanica with a warning in her voice that promised unpleasant things if he had not.

Perceptor nodded before continuing.

"There is one more benefit to the ability to scan machines passively. To identify which points would incapacitate," the screen blinked back to life as several schematics of the earth-bound cybertronians popped up, now surrounded with ways to destroy Bumblebee's stingers to Optimus' axe, and even Megatron's cannon, "or kill," the image was replaced with one that displayed the weak spots in their armor, concentrating on the chest and head.

"No other cybertronian has weapons built directly into the protoform," he stated, "most have to be attached to the protective armor."

"What are you getting at?" asked Alpha Trion with narrowed optics.

"I believe that Sari Sumdac was designed to be an assassin," he concluded, "most likely built by the leading scientist in protoform experimentation."

"You don't mean…" started Botanica.

"The technorganic was most likely built by my predecessor," continued Perceptor, "the Decepticon scientist Scalpel."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>This one was a real doozy to write. I had a good chunk of the final scene written out but it originally had Ratchet and Arcee in the room as well and was going to be part of the original explanation in a previous chapter.

Anyhow, Sari's role in Cybertron is now defined as is her mission. Life will not be easy.


	12. Prologue Pt 12

**Prologue Pt. 12**

"Do you have to lock them back up?" asked Sari from the operating table.

"Hmmm, let me think," said Ratchet as he looked around at the wrecked room, a light fixture fell from the ceiling as it lost its futile battle against gravity, "YES!"

Shortly after leaving Vector's home, Sari had begun complaining about her sore arms. A quick trip back to the hospital and a jab at her transformation mechanisms had revealed that Perceptor had removed the restraints on her upgrades, hence the recently trashed room, the irritated medic, and the nurse hiding under the table with coolant foaming from her mouth. One day in Cybertron, and Sari already had a fairly large debt to her name and had traumatized a poor femme.

"Perceptor owes me," she concluded, "who takes parts out _and_ forgets to put them back in?"

"We'll send him the bill," agreed Ratchet as he placed the first tool under the skin on her wrists, "now hold still."

"Owowowowowowowow!"

"Quit whining!"

"Quit sticking me with screwdrive-OW!"

"It's not a screwdriver! It's a valve to cut off energon to the weapons."

"Um, isn't that… dangerous?"

"Transformation mechanisms don't atrophy." He replied.

"Okay th-oW!"

"Don't move!"

A few moments later he moved on to her calves.

"Wait, do you think I can keep the skates?"

"Definitely not," he snapped, "I'm pretty sure it was the energon ion blades that triggered the first attack."

"Okay then… the jump jets?"

Ratched sighed, she just wasn't letting this go. "We'll see."

"Well, I guess that's- OW! Can't you use the EMP!?"

"It's a small surgery," replied the medic, "not even a particularly painful one. Besides, we still don't know the right calibration for your systems. Last thing we want is for you to fall into stasis for a month again."

"Yeah, that sucked. Diapers are humiliating."

"I can imagine," he agreed, "I imagine it would be like waking up with a hose running out of your waste pipe."

"Do you end up with it _clinging_ to you?"

"Do diapers go inside your exhaust port?" countered the medic.

"Ok, ew. Ugh! I don't even want to _think _about who changed them," moaned Sari at the embarrassing memory, "dad said he hired a nurse. That means somebody I don't even know saw me naked!"

"A professional wouldn't hold it against you," said Ratchet dismissively, "there, try to stand."

She did so shakily like a newborn, letting her servos recalibrate.

"Transform and try the boosters at their lowest setting."

"You left them on? Cool!"

She transformed to the best of her ability, trying not to yelp when the nanoservoes in her freshly-reassembled body caught and seized, generating a loud grating noise instead of the normal beeping sound.

"What was that?" asked Ratchet, "You used to transform in the blink of an optic!"

"I've been having trouble transforming since the thing with Perceptor," replied Sari, "how long did I take?"

"Ten seconds," he snapped and he tapped her chest, "Open."

Sari's chest plates slid sideways and the Matrix of Leadership was briefly exposed before it sank deeper into Sari's chest to cover the spark chamber. Under the artifact and the spark chamber, Ratchet noticed that while the T-cog was in good condition, its casing had been lightly damaged during the operation.

"Well, you should be fine eventually," he noted as he added some extra lubricant to the housing, "though it will be a few vorns before you're able to transform at your old speed."

"I'm totally super-gluing Perceptor's mouth shut," she whined, "I mean it's not a _huge _inconvenience, but now it hurts when I transform."

She blinked when she noticed a particular word in Ratchet's sentence. "Wait, vorns? Am I even gonna live that long?"

"I don't see why not," he replied, "we don't really know whether cybertronians have an upper age limit. I don't think I've ever heard of anybot that's died of old age. Now then, don't transform yet. Let the lubricant seep in properly."

She didn't answer.

"Kid!"

"Huh? What?" yelped the overgrown ten-year-old, "Sorry doc. I was just thinking."

Ratchet raised an optic ridge but decided not to comment. If sari wanted to share what was bugging her, she'd tell him.

"Don't transform, just use your boosters to hop a little."

She complied…

And promptly crashed into the wall.

"Kid! I said hop!"

"I need more practice with these things," she moaned back as she comically slid back down with the faulty paint chip flickering her dress' colors on the way down, "I think I broke my nose."

"Let me see," he replied as he took out a small light and shone it onto her face to look for damage, "meh, you're fine. But I recommend you change the settings to automatic power balance. Just access you system controls."

"My what?"

"Just think about it and the options will come out," he sighed, "you should be able to do it instinctively."

"Well excuse me but I'm kinda new at this."

She concentrated on her systems and a menu popped out.

"You're kidding," she said, "I have a main menu?"

"Sure, it's useful. I'm more surprised that organics can manage without it."

"Let's see… color options?"

She accessed the file.

"How do you think I'd look in… red!"

"Terrible."

Sari looked down at her crimson dress.

"Yeah, back to default. Maybe I can change my hair color too?"

"Try it later. For now, just put your booster potency setting on automatic and you're good."

"Lessee, weapons, paint, optics…"

Her optic colors switched to green, red, purple, and yellow before she settled back to the default.

"Just get to the boosters!"

"Fiiiine! Software settings, wetware settings, ah! Hardware settings."

She paused.

"I'm missing a lot of installation software."

"I uninstalled it to keep you from trying the weapons."

"Says here my hammer's still here," she noted, "just uninstalled, but I think this is the backup."

"Don't!"

Ratchet's warning came too late and Sari's left arm transformed, opening her storage transwarp dimension to let the collapsing hammer out.

"Doesn't this thing work with energon ions?"

"Exactly," replied Ratchet with an exasperated tone as he readied his EMP, "stay still kid."

Sari watched warily as the engine block was carefully aimed at her. She did not fancy waking up in diapers again.

"Wait, shouldn't something have happened by now?"

Ratchet blinked, she was right.

"Maybe the hammer's safe," she said.

"Maybe," he replied, "I'll run a scan just in case. Don't move! We don't know what might trigger another attack."

Sari wisely obeyed, noting the new crevices her earlier attack had caused. She held back a giggle as the scanning laser passed over her, tickling most of her nerve endings simultaneously.

"Huh, no energy overload," he concluded, "looks like you're fine with these two. Though it looks like it'll be some time before you can use the blades and skates."

He frowned.

"It also looks like First Aid was right," he noted, "you're in the middle of your pulsing cycle."

"My what?"

"It's an excess of energy that femmes produce to provide energy for the sparkmate bond," he replied, "you'll be easily aroused whenever this happens until you find a mate."

Sari looked at him with a bemused expression.

"You _do_ know what that means right?"

She shook her head.

"I'm too old for this," moaned the old mech, "visit Red Alert after you come back from your trip. I'll get you an appointment with her to have the excess energy drained away."

"Isn't that bad?"

"Actually, your spark will burn through your chassis if you don't drain it away."

The small femme paled, "Who came up with that!?"

"Doesn't sound too smart, does it? Red Alert should fill you in on the rest. In the meantime, did you find the booster settings?"

"Oh right," she said as she accessed the menu again, "Auto mode right?"

She leapt again, this time only taking an extra ten feet before falling back down to the ground.

"That was a lot better."

"I wonder if I have some other stuff here."

"I can't imagine fitting much more into that tiny frame of yours," snarked Ratchet as she hopped onto his hand.

"Say, what do you think these are for?" she asked as she wiggled her pigtails with her hands, "I mean, I know I have pigtails and all, but I refuse to believe that the Allspark decided to stick bananas on my helm as a decoration."

"Just look around in your hardware settings when you get the chance."

Sari's pigtails split at the front near the head joint and slid forwards to reveal two rounded glass triangles inside.

"What are these?"

"Headlights I think," she turned them on, "yep. Turn those off. Its bad manners to flash bots like that, especially indoors."

Sari snorted.

"What?"

"Flashing," she giggled, "it means something else back home."

Ratchet raised an eyebrow but decided not to comment.

"All right, she's good to go," called out the medic as he reached the waiting room, "Perceptor decided to remove the restraints on her upgrades and the sudden release of energon was catching up to her. She also took some damage to her T-cog housing so don't ask her to transform for another six or seven megacycles."

"What was that noise from before?" asked Bulkhead.

"That would be her attempt at decapitating me when her upgrades went wild again."

Sari blushed and looked away. "Sorry."

"Anyways, it's fine now. She even got to keep a couple of mods this time."

"Well that's good," piped Bumblebee, "Glyph was going on about this thing she wants to show us in the Rust Sea. We're just waiting for Splits to end her shift."

"Aren't the rest of you coming?" asked Sari as she looked over to Optimus, Ratchet, and Arcee.

"We have a… personal matter to take care of," said Arcee.

"Oh, okay," she replied before making the question that had been bugging her for the last several megacycles, "How does a planet made of metal deal with having a sea?"

"This is a sea?" asked Sari with a skeptical look on her face, "looks more like a desert."

* * *

><p>It had been eighteen hours since Sari had come back from the dead, and she was dead set on enjoying herself now that she had finally caught up on her sleep. She still had "bridge-lag" though.<p>

After a healthy breakfast that made Sari swear off astronaut food forever (she had forgotten to tell her dad about the artificial gravity), she was now primed and raring to go. Oil, battery, oxygen, and energon levels were all topped up, though her paint was still flickering since they hadn't been able to find a chip her size, a drawback of being a custom protoform she figured.

The troublesome-trio had made their way to the aptly-named sea of rust with Glyph and Lickety-Split while Arcee, Optimus, and Ratchet went to take care of their "personal matter".

"Did you not hear us complain about the rust on earth?" asked Bumblebee, "There's no water on Cybertron."

"Well, that explains the dry skin," she complained as she scratched her thigh for the tenth time in as many minutes. Sari was in no way vain but if she'd known having dry skin made it this itchy, she'd have brought the lotion her dad had tried to sneak into her bags.

"Anyways, this was a city before the war," said Glyph, "a strain of a new virus called cosmic rust turned it into a massive rust trap. The virus is burned out," she assured her once she noticed the look on Sari's face, "but it works as a driller breeding ground, so it all works out."

"What's a driller?" asked Sari.

"You'll see," quipped Bumblebee cryptically, "not much of a wildlife bot, but I have to admit that those things are awesome! They could kick Meg's aft up a wall."

Sari was getting more confused by the nanoclick. The five had been driving through sand for megacycles with nothing to show for it save for sand getting into places Sari didn't even know she had, she could only imagine that the rest of them would be getting a very thorough oil-bath later.

"Is it gonna be far? I'm getting sand in my undercarriage," complained Lickety-Split, "where's this nest anyways?"

"Two more kliks or so," replied Glyph, "I know it's a pain, but trust me it's worth it."

"I certainly hope so," quipped Sari, "I dunno about the undercarriage, but I'm getting sand in my under_something_."

"You're sitting inside!" noted Bumblebee.

"And _you_ have the window open!"

"My interior gets hot!"

"Oh really? I hadn't noticed."

"They fight like a married couple," noted Glyph, ignoring Lickety-Splits' sudden backfire.

"More like siblings really," said Bulkhead, "Bee's the first autobot Sari ever met, so they're pretty close."

"Really? What about you?"

"Well, she's always there, y'know," he replied with a shrug, "always smiling. Even when she lost her home and when her dad was missing she greeted us with a smile every morning."

"What's a dad?" asked Glyph.

"Sorta like a creator but it _has_ to be a mech and they all have one, even if they don't always know them."

"Huh, weird."

"Yeah, wait till you hear how they make new ones."

"Hmm, how _do_ they make-, oh."

"What?"

"We're here."

Everybot slowed to a stop at Glyph's comment, kicking up more sand in the process. Sari got out of Bumblebee and stared slack-jawed.

"What the heck?"

"Welcome to the Driller Nesting Grounds!" called Glyph as she transformed with a touch of flair.

Scattered all over the flats were massive holes large enough to swallow Bulkhead and leave room for the rest of them. Insect-like flyers the size of eagles drifted around them. A butterfly-like creature bigger than a truck tire came particularly close to Sari, proudly displaying the four hover-turbines it had for wings. Every mile or so, massive mounds of energon-soaked metal rose in familiar-looking shapes.

"Are those giant metal artichokes?"

"Eh no, at least I don't _think_ so," replied Glyph as she wondered what an artichoke was, "they're driller egg pods."

"Drillers lay eggs?" asked the stupefied femme, "How does a robot lay eggs? Wait, do you guys lay eggs?" Sari's eyes widened, "Am _I_ gonna lay eggs!?"

"Well, they're not exactly eggs in organic terms," replied the aquamarine femme, "they make tiny duplicates of themselves and put them in the pods. The small ones then eat metallic rust to refine it and use it for new parts."

"They actually eat metal," concluded Sari, "here I was thinking Jimmy Neutron was bull. How do they get energy out of it?"

"They don't," cut in Bulkhead, "but they're one of the few animals that can eat raw energon crystals. The pods are launched into space where they track down planets with natural energon deposits."

"How do you know that?" asked Bumblebee as he steadied Lickety-Split, who was having trouble standing with her wheeled pedes.

"I worked on an energon farm remember?" replied the green mech, "High grade can only be made from natural energon crystals or internal driller energon, so we used to follow the pods."

"How's regular energon made?" asked Sari.

"Well, there's a harvest coming up," said Bulkhead after looking at the sky for a moment, "you'll see then."

"Anyways, drillers recycle the metal into the ecosystem," said Glyph, "and they purify the energon into something that the rest of the animals can use. Once a driller dies, other animals rush in to drink their energon. Ancient transformers used to hunt them for fuel."

"How do _you_ know so much?" asked Lickety-Split.

"Well, I _do_ work at a museum," she replied with barely restrained smugness, "my main job is to decrypt ancient data pads that use antique operating systems or dead languages, but Vector would offline me if I was ignorant in history."

"Say, what happened to your accent?" asked Bulkhead upon noticing an oddity about his childhood friend.

Glyph's servos seized, "W-what accent?"

"Accent?" asked Sari.

"Yeah. The last time I saw Glyph she had this cute Moon Base 2 accent."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Glyph, slightly flustered at having been called cute, "I have never spoken in any dialect other than standard Iaconian."

Bulkhead gave her a questioning look that made Glyph blush.

"A-anyways, are we going down there or not?"

"I don't know," said Sari, "you could fit a house in those holes. What if they dig from under us?"

"Oh please, the chances of that happening are…"

She stopped, having noticed a sudden rumble under her. The rest of the group came to a stop behind her, having noticed the shifting sand.

"Don't tell me…" moaned Splits.

"RUN!" cried Glyph.

The group wisely ran, or in Sari's case hastily transformed and jumped, away from the massive head that roared out of the ground where they'd been standing seconds ago.

Sari landed roughly in a dune (wave?) and had to fight to keep her mouth shut.

The massive creature was easily larger than any subway back home. The head bore three massive saws that cut through the compacted sand like butter. The creature's armor was covered in spikes that it used to gain traction in the sand, using an undulating motion like a large python to heave itself forward. There was no clear "up" side with this creature. Rather, the whole thing resembled a diabolical leech, radially symmetrical from the mouth. Half a mile later, the bladed tail finally made its appearance.

"Holy cow!" she cried, "Is _that_ a driller!?"

"Yep," said Bulkhead, "this is the first one I've seen an adult this close, though."

"Ancient Autobots used to hunt these things?" asked Lickety incredulously.

"Well, not Autobots. The ancient tribes predate the schism."

"The what?" asked Bumblebee as he caught up.

"The separation of the Lord High Protector and the Primes," clarified Glyph, "basic history."

The group looked at her blankly.

"I'm beginning to see what Vector meant," she deadpanned, "you are coming with me to the museum next chance we get."

"Sounds good to me, but what about now?" said Sari, "Do we just leave it there?"

"Huh?"

Glyph looked back to see that the massive creature had stopped digging in the sand, leaving half of its length outside.

"Oh, I don't believe it!" she said ecstatically.

"You're in for a treat!" claimed Bulkhead.

"Why? What's going on?" asked Split as the massive machine began shuddering, straightening its tail to point it skywards.

"Drillers can only reproduce once before they die," responded Glyph, "at their last moments, they straighten themselves like that and collapse their endoskeleton for their plates to make their nests. The eggs mature inside and then they shoot them out of the atmosphere!"

"Drillers are the most common interplanetary species," continued Bulkhead, "well, them and scraplets, but that's only because they hang onto the eggs."

"Actually, scraplets didn't make it off-world until the Great War," replied his aquamarine friend, "Their eggs were often stolen and hidden inside enemy ships. When the eggs hatched, the crew was eaten alive. Now they're a plague on every known planetary system without their natural predators to keep the population in check."

"Huh, and here I was thinking the planet just _made_ everything," said Sari, "I never would have figured I'd find something so alien look so… familiar."

"Yeah, our ecosystem is based off energon," continued Glyph, "but thanks to creatures like scraplets and drillers, even the metal gets recycled when their bodies sink into the core to be smelted into new cybertronians."

"Do you have plants here?"

"Plants?"

"She means crystals," said Bulkhead, "well, they're the closest thing."

"Oh, sure. We can visit the gardens later."

"Um, guys?" called Bumblebee, he and Lickety-Split had apparently gone on ahead, "the driller's doing something weird."

They looked back to see that the driller had managed to right itself and was twisting in its death throes.

Massive plates shifted as the internal frame collapsed, making the overall shape wider and shorter, energon spraying out from the dying creature. Creaking metal signaled the driller's death as it collapsed into the "artichoke" form Sari had gotten used to. Finally, the metal settled down and the surrounding insects flew over to drink their share of energon.

"That was… I dunno," said Sari, "it was really cool but at the same time… it was kinda sad."

"I know what you mean," said Glyph, "they're dying for the sake of their species. Pit, their first colonies became Velocitron and the Moon Bases."

She squinted in the distance and took out her binoculars.

"I think that one's about to take off!" she called out gleefully as she transformed.

The lot of them transformed back to their alt-modes and took off. Sari tried to jet hop after them, but eventually settled for sitting on Bulkhead's roof. She turned back to her human mode to avoid straining her T-cog.

"What's Velocitron? Are there more cybernetic planets?"

"Yeah, but the technique to cyberform planets was lost vorns ago," replied their historian, "There used to be more of them, but they were either devoured by Unicron or destroyed in the Great War."

"I see…" replied the small femme with a thoughtful look.

Bee looked over at Sari, it looked like something was bothering her.

"We're here!"

The small technoorganic was snapped out of her thoughts by Glyph's voice.

"Whoa."

The mound was even bigger up close and rivalled most buildings back home. Oddly enough, it seemed to be fairly… old. It was covered in rust and the energon around it had congealed long ago. Flittering in and out of the many cracks were several insect like robots as well as some weird robot Chihuahua-crab things.

"Great, the Mexican demon dogs followed me," she quipped as she picked up the nearest one, "hey Bee! What this thing?"

"What's what thiiiiGAH! SCRAPLET!"

"Scraplet?"

She looked at the creature in her arms and scratched it behind its antennae, causing it to purr in delight and nuzzle against her hand.

"That's a scavenger scraplet you motor-head!" snapped Glyph, "They're harmless! I keep one in my apartment for crying out loud."

"Anyone here gonna clue me in?"

"Oh, right. Scraplets are little metal-eating parasites," explained Glyph, "sorta like drillers, but they're smaller and prefer their metal fresh. That particular breed is a scavenger, a juvenile to be more exact. They don't have to be as fast so they have bigger bodies and longer legs."

"What do the adults look like?"

She pointed towards a scraplet the size of a goat with an elongated skull and four spidery legs spread around it. It seemed to be enjoying itself with the metal, grinding away at it with saw-like mouth parts.

"They also duplicate themselves with the metal and use the energon soaked into it," she explained, "but only the scavenger breeds can eat the nasty congealed stuff. Most scraplets can only drink it fresh."

"Can we please talk about something else?" said Bulkhead, "I think I'm gonna blow a gasket."

"Wow, you look greener than usual," quipped Split.

"Ah, remembered that time you found Chromie?" asked Glyph.

"Yep."

"Who's Chromie?" asked Sari.

"Remember that sheepacron I told you about?" asked Bulkhead, "we found it covered in scraplets after we drained the holding tank. Hated the things since."

"You two seem close," noted Lickety-Split, "how long have you known each other?"

Bulkhead and Glyph looked at each other, and then they looked away, then down, then up, and finally back at each other.

"How long _has_ it been?" asked Bulkhead.

"Practically since we were sparked I think," admitted Glyph before turning back to Lickety-Split, "my creators and his caretaker were old friends and neighbors so…"

"I guess it just happened," concluded the mech, "we've always been friends."

"Hmm, that's nice," said Sari wistfully.

Lickety-Split raised an optical ridge but didn't comment.

"Ooh-ooh-ooh!" squealed Glyph, "I think it's about to launch!"

Indeed, the massive artichoke had begun activating what was left of its internal mechanisms and was gearing up to launch its brood into deep space to colonize the universe. The top of the massive metal veggie began opening in a matter more akin to a flower opening its petals.

"Should we be standing this close?" asked Lickety-Split.

"We're fine," said Bulkhead, "it's a pretty weak blast off."

The giant metal vegetable began to emit a blue glow from within its massive leaves.

"What in the-?"

The first blast off blew Sari off her feet.

From within the structure, pellets the size of motorcycles shot out into space. The rest of the bots watched stupefied as the glowing blue eggs rapidly reached escape velocity and left Cybertron's gravitational well.

"They stopped glowing," noted Lickety-Split.

"They only have enough energon to leave Cybertron," replied Glyph, "they usually launch in the general direction of an energon rich planet, so they're easy to track."

"Hey Sari, look over there," cut in Bulkhead, "there at Moon Base 1. Sari?"

He looked around for Sari only to notice a tiny pair of legs sticking out from the sand some ten feet away from where Sari had stood earlier.

"Uh, Sari?"

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

* * *

><p>"You mean to tell me you haven't even called!?" yelled Ratchet.<p>

"Well, I wasn't sure what to say," replied Arcee, "how does this sound? "Hey sis, how've you been? Sorry for bailing for the last f_ifty thousand_ vorns!""

"It wasn't _that_ long!" snapped Ratchet, "I think. Either way, what will you say now?"

"I- don't know," she admitted, "a lot must've happened during the war. Ariel won't even recognize me and Chromia will probably beat me white and grey."

"Um, excuse," said the third member of their small group, "should I really be here?"

"I might need a shield, so yes."

"She can't be that bad," said Ratchet.

"Trust me, you don't know my sister."

Optimus felt like the third wheel. The small group had decided to drive over to see Arcee's family and let her sisters know that she had been reactivated.

The only problem was that Arcee seemed terrified of the mere idea.

"She's your sister! What do you have to be afraid of?"

"Ariel once spilled oil onto Chromia's diary," she said flatly, "the poor femmeling couldn't sit for an orn."

They pulled into a cul-de-sac and transformed into robot mode. Ratchet and Optimus began to walk to the small house decorated by a small pot with a single fading crystal when they noticed that a certain member of their team was missing.

"Arcee?"

"Oh Ratchet what _will_ I say?" she moaned, "What _can_ I say? I never even told them about my final mission. I just told them I had to guard a supply run. They don't know about my involvement with Omega Supreme."

"The truth's always a good place to start," proposed the older mech with a soft smile, "let's just go in and let whatever happens happen."

Arcee merely nodded and rang the doorbell.

It took about thirty seconds for her to get cold feet.

"Looks like she's not home! Let's go and come back later!"

Ratchet magnetized her stabilizing servos to the floor before she could run away and rang the doorbell again.

"Coming! I'm coming!" called out a femme's voice before the door opened, "YES! How can I… help… you..?"

Standing in the doorway was a cobalt blue femme with a similar same body type as Arcee. Her helm had two audio receptors that spanned both sides of her head like fins and a vent jutting out of her forehead.

"Arcee?" she said breathlessly.

"Hey sis," replied the pink femme, "it's been a while."

Chromia passed out.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Hey folks. Sorry about the wait. This chapter was a pain in the ass to write. Anyways, I'e finally received an opinion about what Sari's love interest will be like. Namely, female. If anyone here wants to see Sari paired with a guy, I suggest you speak up.

Anyhow, some of you will have noticed a reference to the original Transformers. If you didn't it will be clarified soon. If you did, don't bring it up! All will be clear soon enough.

Until next time!


	13. Prologue Pt 13

**Prologue Pt. 13**

"How do they fly anyways?" asked Sari as the lot left the desert.

"They shoot out energon plasma from the sides and use an electromagnetic bubble shield to channel it downwards," piped Glyph.

"You can always trust our walking encyclopedia," quipped Lickety-Split as they pulled onto a deserted, but paved, road.

"Hey! I resent that!" snapped the other vehicle.

Sari and Bumblebee chuckled right as Sari's cellphone went off.

"Aw slag it," she cursed after she looked at the alarm, "Hey 'Bee? How far are we from this place?"

She held up the cellphone's screen to his rearview mirror.

"Um, it's not too far. We should get there in a megacycle or so. Why?"

"I have to be there in half an hour," she groaned, "I have an appointment with Red Alert."

"ARE YOU SICK AGAIN!?"

"Of course not!" replied Sari, "Ratchet sent me to her to have my spark checked out."

Everybot inched away from Bumblebee, who was not fortunate enough to be able to do so.

"Did you catch something?" he asked, "you don't have yellow field or something, right?"

"Bee!" snapped Lickety-Split, "How can you just ask that kind of thing!"

"What? If she has Yellow Field, I don't wanna catch it."

"Unless you've been fragging her, then I don't think that's likely!"

Sari flinched when her friend's seat warmers suddenly switched on.

"Are you crazy!? She's 300 orns old!"

"I'm ten!"

"280 orns old is worse! She's way too young for me!"

"Okay okay, it was just a joke," groaned the trike, "So! What do you need to go to the doc for?"

"Something about a pulse cycle," replied the Pretender with a wave of her hand.

Everyone hit the brakes.

"Y-y-y-you!" stuttered Lick as she transformed, red-faced with disgust, "you protophile!"

"I didn't know!" cried Bumblebee as he transformed, leaving Sari on the floor.

"How the PIT could y'all not know!?" snapped Glyph as she shifted out her civilian-grade stingers.

"Easy Glee," said Bulkhead as he put his servos on her shoulders, "technorganics don't have any noticeable energy signatures."

The two femmes blinked and looked at the confused femme on the ground.

"What the-?"

"He's right!" noted Lick, "How-?"

"Carbon," said the large green mech as he picked up Sari and placed her on his shoulder, "Earth organics are full of it."

"So?"

"Carbon deposits trap energon radiation," recalled Glyph, "now that I think about it, I could only feel her when she was in robot mode."

"Yeah, but I still didn't feel anything resembling a pulse," noted Glyph, "though I guess it gets stronger near the end."

"Ugh, tell me about it," groaned her aqua friend, "I'll have to tell you about this one time Bulky and I-."

"They don't need to know that!" cut in Bulkhead.

Bumblebee and Sari merely looked at each other.

"What the heck was that?" asked the smaller member of the yellow duo.

"Nothing! We should leave!"

He transformed and gunned the engine until he was little more than a dot in the distant road.

"Well, he's right," said Glyph, "but you're not riding in him until you're off your cycle."

"I still don't get what that means," noted Sari, "is it like that "monthly" thing Ms. Beller was always complaining about?"

"I don't know," she admitted, "but you know how some organics have mating seasons? It's like that."

"Wait, what!? Ratchet never told me that!"

"It's kind of a femme-to-femme type thing," said Lick, "but seriously, you're not getting in 'Bee. It's not proper."

"Hah!" snorted Glyph, "After all tha' talk about fraggin', y'all get all flustered when someone actually brings it into ta conversation!"

They stared.

"What?"

"Is _that_ the accent Bulkhead meant?" asked Sari.

Glyph turned beet red as her coolant rushed to her face and transformed to hide her blush.

"Just get in!" she snapped as she popped her trunk open.

"I'm not getting in there," replied the yellow femme, "you don't even have seats, never mind seatbelts."

"Oh for Solus' sake!" she cried as she transformed back up, she turned to Bumblebee, "we have the same body type right?"

"Well, I think your model might be a vorn newer."

"Doesn't matter. Transform."

He raised a ridge, but the yellow speedster complied.

"Don't read _anything_ into this!" she snapped.

Sari flinched when the older femme's optics changed to green before four lasers formed a box around the yellow subcompact.

"WHOA! Little warning next time?" he yelped as his circuits seized.

"Wa-wa-wa-wa-what are you doing!?" yelled Split as she blushed even deeper.

"She needs someplace to sit down, right?" snapped the femme as the lightshow ended and her colors shifted back to their normal blue, "stand back please."

Sari had seen the bots transform before, but she had never seen _this_ before. Metal shimmered and rippled as it reformed, blue circuitry shuddering visibly under the mesh as relays were rearranged and matter was moved to mimic the materials the other subcompact did. Finally, she folded back down in the same Manner Bumblebee did, shifting her hips beneath herself.

As she settled into her new form, she couldn't help but voice her opinion.

"Feels kinda loose, but it will do," she said, "now come on. I can't wait to see Bulky's face!"

The door opened to reveal an interior that looked exactly like Bumblebee's, save for the new color scheme.

"Shall we?"

Sari hesitantly stepped in, noting that Glyph's seats were cushier than the other subcompact's.

"Whoa! Freaky," yelped Glyph as she felt Sari's hands in her, "can't see how he can stand it."

"You get used to it," replied Bumblebee dismissively, "Now come on! Bulkhead's gotta be halfway to Kaon by now."

"Sure," replied Splits, "Race ya!"

"Hey no fair!" yelled Bumblebee as he took off after the trike.

"Thinking back on it, I should have brought my scooter," noted Sari as the two sped ahead, "what's the big deal with me riding in 'Bee anyways?"

"You don't get your chamber that close to a femme's when she's in her pulse cycle unless you're serious," sighed Glyph, "it's just too… tempting."

"For Bumblebee?"

"For you!" replied her ride, "How do mating seasons work with organics?"

Sari had to think about that for a second, searching her drives for memories of every single nature documentary tutorbot had sat her through.

"Well, it tends to vary. It usually involves a contest by the males."

"Really? Are there more females than males?"

"Not by too much," she replied, "they're more or less equal most of the time."

"Well, with us, femmes are the ones with the… drive for reproduction," said Glyph, "it's probably for the best since there aren't that many femmes to begin with."

"So what'll happen?"

"Right now it should be manageable," she noted, "it's the last orn that's Pit in the chamber. You'll feel like jumping on anybot's chest plates, male or female."

"WHAT!? Girls too!?"

"Femmes can bond with each other too," she explained, "same with mechs, though it takes more than three tries either way."

"Tries? At bonding?"

"Yep. You need to merge the fields first to get them to accept each other. A mech and a femme need about seven field merges before they're ready to try a sparkbond, two mechs need around ten, and femmes only four or five if they're on their cycle."

"Why's that?"

"Femme's were built to provide some alternative desings," said Glyph, "we are able to grow red sparks that store combined personalities and designs. That's also why our chest plates are wider and why we get pulse cycles, the red spark needs room to grow and extra energy. However, they aren't sentient until they meet the Allspark. If they don't come into contact without some form of Allspark energy, they'll fade away after an orn or two. Mech can grow them too, but they don't have as much room so I imagine it feels uncomfortable and the growth period is a lot longer."

"So I'll just grow an extra spark every so often?"

"Of course not. Lifeless sparks are forged by the excess energy that comes from forging or reinforcing a bond by either mates or siblings."

"Siblings too?"

"Sure, it's not as… sexual for them, but its common enough. When that happens, the youngling is considered another sibling rather than a creation."

"Hmm," hummed Sari as she picked at her dress, "I guess I still have a lot to learn about Cybertron."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You're still new at this."

"I know, but I feel like I should know this!" she groaned, "It's hard to only know about one side of yourself."

"I really can't imagine," admitted Glyph, "I was raised in Moon Base 1 my whole life before I moved here to become an archaeometrist."

"What's that?"

"Well, archaeometrists measure time by radioactive isotopes," she replied, "though I somehow ended up studying acheocryptology after meeting Vector."

"Dad always said life takes you weird places," agreed Sari, "I never thought my life would take me _here_."

"And I never thought I'd meet a wonder like you!"

"Eh?" yelped Sari with a blush, "Wonder? Me?"

"Of course! Just look at you! A perfect hybrid. All of the power of a cybertronian with the versatility of an organic! I've seen novels with more believable tales and yet here you are!"

"It's not that great," she replied as her blush died down, "I may look like this, but I'm sixty pounds overweight thanks to all the metal, I get weird cravings for motor oil and tuna _with_ the can, and I keep setting off every single metal detector in the city."

"What's tuna?"

"You're not worried about the tin can?"

"The tin wrapping? It sounds tasty enough."

"What the heck does a robot need to eat for?"

"Servos wear down. If you don't eat enough metals, your gears can wear down early."

"Is that why I started chugging motor oil before I got here?" groaned Sari.

"Probably," replied Glyph, "your Prime told me you make your own oils, though I guess that wasn't enough."

"Huh, I didn't know that," she admitted, "I'll have to talk with the boss and the doc later to see what else I missed," a thought came to her, "I wonder if that's why I don't get fat."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Humans don't have fuel tanks," she explained, "we break down what we eat into fuel and into what our bodies need. Normally, I'd store energy by turning the fuel into fat. Heck, with the way I eat I should be using two seats! I guess I've been using the fat as oil or to make that stuff that organic joints use for lubricant. That's also probably why I need to eat so much."

"I've never seen you eat."

"Well I don't eat _all_ the time," she scoffed, "though I _could_ go for a cupcake right now, I don't wanna get crumbs all over your upholstery. I don't eat too much at a time, but I snack a lot over the day. Dad said it adds up to nearly five thousand calories."

"And that is?"

"Try drinking enough energon to fill two fuel tanks."

"Ugh," groaned Glyph at the thought of over filling by that much, "Wait, how much food did you bring?"

"Not enough," she whined, "I wasn't planning on staying for more than a few orns and packed for that much time. I'm gonna be in serious trouble if I can't go back to Earth before two orns."

"Can't you just make more?"

"With what? There's nothing here to grow with, not even water. And even if there was, I once managed to melt my plastic daisies."

"Ah, right," recalled Glyph, "well, I guess you'll have to phone home or something."

"Not too bad then," noted Sari, "I need to call dad anyways."

"Remind me to ask you about your family structures when you get back."

"Back from what?"

"Your appointment?" replied the femme as she stopped in front of a familiar-looking subcompact, "we're here."

Sari looked up to see a familiar looking hospital as Glyph opened her door to let her out.

"IT'S HER!" Cried a familiar voice.

Sari turned just in time to see the nurse that had helped Ratchet with her earlier run away screaming.

"What was that all about?" asked Bumblebee.

"A lawsuit in the making," was the femme's sour reply.

* * *

><p>"Well, um… nice to meet you," said Optimus awkwardly from his spot on the couch.<p>

Glare.

"My name is Optimus Prime."

Glaare.

"This is my medical officer Ratchet and, uh, well I guess you already knew Arcee being your sister and all."

Glaaare.

"I uh," he turned to his medic, "hey, Ratchet? Think we can demagnetize her now?"

"Say that AFTER I reinstall your arm!"

Shortly after passing out, the whole group had rushed into the house, lest they call even more attention to themselves than they already did by having a massive, flying autobot with them.

After coming in, Optimus couldn't help but notice that Arcee had decided to hide behind him as Ratchet worked on rebooting her sister.

He had just enough time to hear (1) Ratchet's sigh of victory as Chromia came back online followed by (2) Arcee's fearful squeak that made him turn for a second, before turning back to hear (3) a rage-filled roar that preluded (4) a fist flying at mach five that managed to clock him right in the face.

The last thing isn't really a sound, so it isn't counted as one of the three things that Megatron's victor heard before the femme had, in Ratchet's medical opinion, "beaten the ever-loving slag out of him".

Eventually, they managed to subdue the enraged femme at the cost of an arm and a leg (Ratchet was still grumbling about the earlier repair). The medic then proceeded to trap her by magnetizing her to the treated lead couch.

Which brings us to the present.

"Honestly, I thought you were exaggerating," snapped Ratchet, his good mood having left eons ago, "I imagined this to be some tearful reunion between two long-lost sisters and what do I get? A salvage team captain that too fast with a wrench for her own good!"

That had probably the most surprising part of the whole deal. As a salvage operative, Chromia was expected to be good with a tool kit. What none of them had expected was that she'd be good enough to dismantle a shoulder joint in less than two decacycles.

If Ratchet hadn't magnetized her when he did, she'd have started on his helm.

"Okay sis, if you can promise not to bite me, I can take the gag off."

Chromia merely glared at her sister.

"All right then, I'll just get this off y- OW! What did I say about biting?"

"Get out you oversized piece of scrap metal!"

"Come on Chro-."

"No, you "come on"! We buried you, you slagging glitch!" she screamed, "do you have any idea how it felt to tell Ariel that her big sister wasn't coming back!? She asked me why we were putting you in a box! She begged me to pull you out! Where the FRAG have you been!?"

"Buried her!?" snapped Ratchet.

"That's right, BURIED! Recycled!"

"Arcee's been in stasis since the Great war!"

"What?"

"I was reactivated less than an orn ago," explained her sister, barely holding back the roaring of her cyclers, "and before THAT I was kidnapped by Shockwave to. I'd be scrap if it hadn't been for Ratchet and Sari."

"That is absolutely ridiculous!" snapped the blue femme.

Ratchet sighed and took a chip out of his helm.

"This is Perceptor's comlink frequency," he explained, "you might as well hear it from the horse's mouth."

The others turned to look at him with confused expressions.

"It's an Earth expression," he explained awkwardly, "just call him!"

Chromia sighed and turned her head to let him insert the chip.

"Hello? Is this Perceptor?"

* * *

><p>"Well, you're definitely in your pulse cycle," noted Red Alert as she looked over Sari's spark, "but it's only about two orns in. It might be dangerous to try a drain right now."<p>

Sari was, once again, naked under the scrutiny of an optic. Well, half naked. Her clothes had gotten in the way of her spark examination and she'd needed to remove them. Once she'd been left in her b-cup bra, stockings, and hip-hugging panties, Red Alert had attached a bundle of cables to the orb in her chest.

"Why did Ratchet's scan say I was in the middle of it?" she asked.

"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's because of that thing," she replied, pointing at the Matrix of Leadership. Sari had removed it in her bot form, having figured that her doctor would have clearance since she already knew about her technorganic nature.

"My own initial scans showed that you _were_ in the strongest parts of your cycle, but you're far too calm to be in the worst of it," she paused, "or the best of it. Depending on how you see it. Either way, I got the correct scan after you removed it, so I'd say it's a fairly safe bet."

"Is that why you had me strip?"

"Er, yes," she said, "Although, I must admit I was somewhat curious about your body."

"I'm pretty sure there's something unethical about that," she said while she covered her chest self-consciously. Great, _now_ she felt embarrassed. She wasn't sure why it felt more embarrassing to have her spark checked out than to be naked in front of strangers. Maybe it was because they didn't find anything attractive about her organic form?

"I can assure you that my interest was purely academic," she replied in a somewhat offended tone, "it's not like there's anything to look at."

"HEY! B-cup works!" snapped Sari, "See? Big-ish."

"I'm not sure what that means, but I don't think that's what I meant," she groaned, "attraction involves more than just physical appearance for us, though it is a bonus."

"So I can walk around naked and I won't get a reaction?" said her patient, "well, that explains that time Bulky offered to install a bath in his trunk if nothing else."

Red Alert raised an optic ridge.

"What? I was eight and the base didn't have running water at first."

"How old are you now?"

"Ten but I look fifteen or sixteen. Allspark growth spurt, before you ask."

"I see. That's in Earth Stellar Cycles?" Sari nodded, and let Red Alert calculate to cybertronian time units, "Well, either way you're a lot younger than most femmes are when they get their first cycle."

"Well, how old do I look?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, humans age faster than cybertronians, right?" the doctor nodded, "well, how old would you say I look?"

"It isn't about looking a certain age," she replied, "we are not as helpless when we are born as you are. From the files you brought, I see that humans can build new humans within them. As a side effect, you need to be small and helpless to avoid harming the human host once the incubation period is over."

"Mother."

"Excuse me?"

"The human that delivers the baby," clarified Sari, "she's called a mother. Calling her a host sounds… parasitic."

"I see," replied Red Alert pensively. She didn't really see the difference, both absorbed nutrients from their host after all, "either way, cybertronians have no need for this stage. When we are sparked, we already bear complete bodies and basic personalities, although both can be changed through upgrades and life experiences. It's difficult to pinpoint an exact equivalent age, but based on this information I'd say we are sparked at thirteen or fourteen years old in human age. In the beginning of adolescence I believe."

"It's kinda weird to think you guys were never babies," said the smaller femme, "everything starts life as a baby of some sort on Earth."

"Yes, but I imagine that they finish incubation at different stages depending on each specie's needs," replied Red, "it's similar to that. We have no need for an infantile stage."

"Well, yeah I got _that_," she groaned, "it's still weird."

"Well _I_ find it odd that humans carry _protoforms_ in their abdomens," quipped Red Alert with a shudder, "I mean, red sparks are one thing, but this? Well, it's nothing you'll have to worry about anyways."

"Wait, what?" cut in Sari, "What do you mean by that?"

"Red sparks? You see when you find the right mech, or femme if you prefer, you might feel the need to-."

"No not that!" snapped the small femme, "Glyph already explained that part. What do you mean I won't have to worry about getting pregnant?"

"Well, you can't," replied the medic as she pulled up a pair of charts, "see? This is a normal human femme and this is the scan Perceptor took."

Sari's eyes darted from one to the other, widening as she noticed the difference.

"Do you see it?" she asked, unaware of her patient's rising distress, "there are no organs above this area," she overlaid the reproductive organs to outline the area where cervix should be, "no ovaries, fallopian tubes, or even a uterus. Organic reproduction is impossible for you. This part of your design is probably on purpose. If I'm right, you wouldn't be able to transform during a- Sari?"

She was gone.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I was somehwat hesitant about some of the anatomical parts of this chapter. In the end, however, I decided to go with the logical option since I imagined a fetus would get in the way of the transformation mechanisms. Other diferences between pretendes and humans will become more aparent as time goes on. These will be based entirely on design practicality. An example of this is that pretenders have little to no body hair since it would get caught between their armor plates. Their hair and eyebrows remain solely because of the Allspark's knowledge of human society, namely that humans tend to remove unwanted body hair anyways.

Yes, I am aware that I'm overthinking this, but this is more or less what happens when you mix ADD with OCD. Some of you may have also noted that I have a knack for traumatizing my characters, but you can expect that to get way worse before it gets better. I have big plans for Sari in the long run and things _will_ get gory. To put that into perspective, this was originally going to be a 3k+ words sex joke.

I also need some advise. Would it be better to scrap this oversized prologue and skip straight to the main story (keeping the prologue as a series of flashbacks) or should I keep going? Anyone that has read Otherself knows that I like to stick some action in the plot, and this has already dragged on far beyond the intended three chapters. The story as a whole will not change and some character introductions may have to be modified, but other than that it should be more or less the same. I simply fear that I may be overdoing it with the explanations and I ocasionally remember that not ev eryone is as detail-oriented as I am.

On an unrelated note, I recently read a manga called Nukoduke! Since I will explode if I don't rant somewhere, let me just say this. I WANT A NUKO! *ahem* thank you.


	14. I blew it, sorry guys

This is not an update. I repeat: this is not an update.

That said, this is also not a notice of cancellation. Rather, I recently came accross a rather disturbing piece of information.

I blew it, and I blew it big time.

The first screw-up I made is an easy fix. Namely, I wasn't aware that Sari's skyboom shield already had a design as it was originally mentioned but not shown, leading to the use of the riot shield I gave her. It is, in fact, meant to be circular with a supporting metal frame composed by three curved blades, which I assume double as a buzzsaw. Everything else about Sari's design will remain the same, save for the discoveries that will be made later.

The real story-threatening piece of data I found might mean a complete rewrite. I was looking into the history of Transformers: Prime when I somehow stumbled upon a piece of TFA-related data I was not aware existed. Why? Because it was in the Allspark Almanac, _which I have not read._

What is this vital information? Why it's Cybertron's hostory.

It is painfully obvious that the Cybertron in Animated is very different from any other that has come before, one of the reasons that the more hardcore G1 loyalists hate it. What I wasn't aware is _how_ different it truly was.

In this version, Cybertron is over six _billion_ years old and has a loose but defined history, most of which is unavailable. TFA always seemed more loosely defined than most other Transformers universes, with the most detailed one to date being TFP, which is about half a billion years old by my estimate. The problem is that the official history completely contradicts what I have written so far, yet Darth T-Rex managed to keep _his_ canon. Here's the copy-and-paste found in the wiki page.

* * *

><p>The many planets of the Hadeen System were colonized over 6 billion years ago by the Cybertronian race. As the name implies, the star at the center is Hadeen. The Hadeen System lies within the Milky Way Galaxy and includes the Hadeen star, 12 planet (including Cybertron), 14 moons total, and a comet.<p>

2 billion stellar cycles ago, Zeemon Magnus led the Guardians. The Guardians, along with the Malignus, were one of two factions participating in the Second Cybertronian War. They won, and went on to become the ruling class of Cybertron, only to be ousted when the Protectons staged a successful military coup and overthrew the Guardian leader.

1 billion stellar cycles ago, Nova Magnus had become leader of the Protectobots, and around this time the Third Cybertronian War began between the Protectobots and the Destrons. Under the leadership of Devron, the Destrons defeated the Protectobots. Later, as tension between the Autobots and the Destrons grew, the Decepticons arose as a subfaction of the Destrons, led by Megazarak. Nova Magnus also destroyed several historical records that appeared to view the previous Magnuses (Magni?) in a negative light by enacting the Great Purge.

Over 30 million stellar cycles ago, P.C. Magnus was leader of the Autobots, and he established the Elite Guard headquarters of Fortress Maximus.

12 million stellar cycles ago, amidst the uprisings of the Decepticon faction, Ultra Magnus became leader of the Autobots. His first act was to pass the Decepticon Registration Act, and the planet plunged into the Great War. Ultra Magnus held the position for millions of stellar cycles, from the Great War onward, until an attack by Shockwave left him onspark support. As a result, Sentinel Prime was appointed acting Magnus.

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><p>As you can see, there is no mention of any Primes or even of Primus. As the story stands now, it is completely non-cannonical, meaning that I may have to rewrite it as I purposely avoid non-canonical fics alongside bothuman pairings. That said, my earlier assumption that Sari would be unable to find other cybertronians attractive due to an ingrained organic instinct was wrong. In the comic she developed a small crush on a bot called Afterburn who also happens to look like Ironman. I'm still not pairing her with Bumblebee though.

The more I read, the more I realize that TFA Cybertron has little in common with the previous incarnations other than the name. Sexual reproduction is hinted at in other incarnations whereas it is completely impossible in TFA, siblings appear to be a twin-only thing, and I'm pretty sure they come out of a factory linked to the Vector Sigma module.

All in all, my brain is melting right now because while I like the way the story is going so far, my compulsion is to rewrite it to fit canon to the point that I already came up with several alternatives.

So here's the awkward part.

Should I rewrite it or should I leave it as is? Keep in mind that most of the mystical elements will have to be removed (Matrix of Leadership to give a few) and that the primary storyline should stay the same. I even figured out a way to sneak Primus and Unicron back in.

If I do rewrite this, I'll probably have to cut the trip to Cybertron short and have Sari use the space bridge to travel back and forth.

I will announce my decision in two weeks by replacing this "chapter".

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><p><strong>Update:<strong> I retract my earlier statement about the TFA canon being dificult. It is _downright infuriating_! Not only is the cybertronian race older than I had originally estimated, it was born at a time period when life should not have been possible! Ten billion years! That's how old cybertron supposedly is and that is not the worst part. The first servo-made tools were found to be eight billion years old, hinting that they had a more primitive origin than expected.

Fortunately, it seems that I have found a solution to merely correct rather than rewrite. Although I can't provide spoilers, I will say that I will use and abuse the Great Purge.


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